(02/04/24) Dassault Aviation has opened a maintenance,
repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Subang Airport near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Operating under the ExecuJet brand, the
state-of-the-art factory service center will be able to support
10-15 Dassault Aviation, Bombardier and Gulfstream aircraft at one time, including Dassault’s largest aircraft,
the Falcon 6X, which recently entered service, and the larger 10X,
which is expected to enter the market in 2027.
The 149,500 sqft purpose-built facility offers
customers the full suite of MRO services from line maintenance and
AOG support through to heavy maintenance checks, cabin interior
refurbishments, satcom
installations, avionics upgrades and other advanced modifications.
ExecuJet’s new MRO facility at Subang Airport near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The facility, which was custom designed to support business
aircraft and includes advanced features such as a built-in
overhead crane for aircraft engine changes, replaces a smaller
facility originally built for aircraft undercover parking.
The new hangar’s energy-saving design
elements include large windows, allowing for more natural light;
LED lighting; high-volume low-speed overhead fans for cooling; an
85kW rooftop solar system and water tanks for harvesting
rainwater.
“The benefit of having a purpose-built MRO facility is it can
include new features to support MRO activity (for example, a
built-in overhead-crane for aircraft engine changes) and it can be
future-proofed,” said Ivan Lim, Regional VP Asia at ExecuJet MRO
Services. “We also designed the hangar and workshops to optimize
the workflow through the facility. The 105,000-ft2 hangar can
accommodate up to 15 medium and large business jets
simultaneously, including the ultra-large-cabin Dassault Falcon 6X
and Falcon 10X. Our previous facility at Subang Airport was
smaller and the hangar was originally designed for aircraft
undercover parking.”
In addition to Kuala Lumpur, Dassault is:
– building a new U.S. flagship MRO location in
Melbourne, Florida to support Falcons operating in North and South
America. This center will open in 2025;
– adding capacity in the Northeast U.S. with
another authorized service center, Pro Star Aviation, located near
Boston;
– relocating a facility in Sorocaba, near São
Paulo, Brazil to the newly opened Catarina International Executive
airport; and
– supporting the Indian market with a new
authorized service center in New Delhi, Indamer.
Last year, the company opened a major new ExecuJet
MRO center at Dubai World Central airport. This 165,250 sqft
(15,350 sqm) facility will vastly improve service to customers in
the Middle East.
Dassault is also expanding the number of MRO
locations that can perform C checks and other major inspections
and handle technology retrofits such as the EASy IV flight deck,
the FalconEye Combined Vision System, and the FalconConnect
high-speed Internet connectivity package.
“Over the last half decade, we have more than
doubled our global support capacity and considerably modernized
our MRO capability,” said Jean Kayanakis, Dassault Aviation’s SVP for worldwide
customer service. “We now have more than 60 service locations and
15 parts distribution centers around the world, along with the GoTeams necessary to support aircraft in the field 24/7 wherever
they may be. This is part of a strategy aimed at keeping us as
close as possible to our customers and offering all the services
needed to maximize the up-time and value of their Falcon fleets.”
In a separate development, EASA and the US FAA
have certified ExecuJet MRO Services Malaysia to perform line
maintenance and provide AOG support for Falcon 6X aircraft
throughout the region.
The ExecuJet MRO network is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Dassault Aviation.
