Dassault Falcon Jet is set to build a new maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Melbourne Orlando International Airport (KMLB) as the company looks to ramp up its MRO network, it announced Monday at the 2022 National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), in Orlando, Florida.
Construction in Melbourne is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2023, with the facility opening set for late 2024.
The new service center will allow Dassault to expand its U.S. footprint to keep up with the demand it is seeing for new jets from customers, according to Dassault Aviation’s chairman and CEO Eric Trappier.
The new facility will comprise 175,000 square feet, and service all current Falcon models for its North and South American customers, according to Dassault. Altogether, the facility will have the capacity to accommodate 18 Falcon models simultaneously.
“We extensively evaluated several areas before we found that the business environment in Florida, along with its highly skilled workforce on the Space Coast, to be the perfect combination for this project,” Trappier said. “We appreciate the cooperative support received from the Governor’s office and the State of Florida. Their support and leadership made this possible.”
Leveraging Local Talent
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that investing in the state’s workforce to attract top companies has been one of the state’s priorities.
“Today’s announcement from Dassault Falcon Jet shows how these investments are paying dividends,” DeSantis said. “This new facility will bring high-paying jobs to Melbourne and lead to strong economic growth throughout Central Florida.”
Located on Florida’s Space Coast, which employs approximately 35,000 aviation personnel, Melbourne is strategically located close to educational institutions, such as the Florida Institute of Technology and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which the OEM said it looked to leverage.
Dassault said the Melbourne facility would be capable of completing heavy maintenance work and is being set up to do a range of things from line maintenance, C Checks, and various engineering and modifications services. There will be workshops, offices, lounges for customers, and a large warehouse for shop activities that also serves as a distribution hub.
Dassault also said the site will house a 54,000-square-foot paint shop.
In 2023, Dassault’s ExecuJet MRO Services will open a similar heavy-maintenance facility in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The company said it will also begin construction on another heavy shop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Altogether, Dassault now has more than 40 factory service locations and 20 authorized service centers across the world.
Sign Up for the Business Air Newsletter
Designed to keep you up-to-date with the latest in Business Aviation.
