Gulf Region Expected to Continue its Love Affair With French BizJets

Dassault will be showing off its Falcon 8X at this year's Middle East & North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) show and exhibition.

The long-range trijet has continued to prove popular in the Gulf region, given its long range and additional redundancy. Large cabin Falcons like the Falcon 8X make up a third of the 75 Dassault aircraft operating in the area, allowing owners to split the difference between a long-legged aircraft and a short field performer. With the 8X, customers can leverage its 6,450-nm range to travel between a number of city-pairs like New York and Dubai without giving up shorter runways like London City Airport. Dassault's "FalconEye" optional HUD assists pilots in IMC approaches down to 100-foot minima, allowing customers a wider range of weather conditions to make it through nearly any weather conditions. 

The Dassault trend is only expected to continue with the imminent introduction of the Falcon 6X and 10X, offering customers even more space and performance than ever before.

The Gulf area's love of large cabins has already gotten a number of orders for the 6X, its 5,500-nm range attracting the attention of globetrotting bizjet operators. That aircraft should begin to enter customer hands about halfway through next year. The larger, more luxurious 10X is not as far along in its development process, and is currently expected to enter the market sometime in 2025. 

"Operators in the Middle East highly value the performance, flexibility, robustness and technological excellence of large cabin models like the Falcon 8X, which draw heavily on decades of Dassault fighter aircraft experience," said Dassault Aviation chairman & CEO Eric Trappier. "This appreciation can only grow with the arrival of the new Falcon 6X and 10X, which will set a new standard in the large cabin segment."

FMI: www.mebaa.com