Dassault Aviation, which next month will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first flight of the Mystère/Falcon 20, said it has managed to stay afloat despite the current global aerospace crisis thanks to its Falcon products. But Charles Edelstenne, the group’s chairman, already predicts lower revenues for its business aviation division this year because of the “present climate and the consequences of conflict with Iraq.”
He said that since the end of last year there has been a slowdown in the business aviation market. Orders for eight Falcons placed last year have been canceled, four of them toward the end of the year. “We are at a low point in the cycle and, with the imminence of war, in an uncertain period that does not favor growth. If there is a trend, it is probably downward,” Edelstenne said. He believes that the different political visions of France and the U.S. would “not have a long-term effect on this business.”
