Dassault Aviation saw its profits fall in 2003 as sales of Falcon business aircraft nose-dived.
Announcing consolidated financial results for 2003, chairman and chief executive Charles Edelstenne unveiled a 5.4% drop in profits and highlighted the pain felt by the business aviation community in the past year.
The numbers, announced to the press on 18 February, reveal a massive shift in the French group's revenue. Sales of Falcon aircraft have previously accounted for 66-75% of its income. Last year they plummeted to 51%. Income from sales of business aircraft fell to E1.69 billion ($2.14 billion) from E2.23 billion in 2002 and a high of E2.65 billion in 2001.
The scale of the problem for Dassault is pinpointed in the number of orders it took for its corporate jets: a mere 40 in 2003 compared with 72 in the previous year and a high in 1998 when, with the fractional ownership market in overdrive, it sold 38 aircraft to NetJets as part of a total annual sale of 99.
Edelstenne revealed that Dassault delivered 49 Falcons last year, down from 66 in 2002 and 75 in 2001.
Speaking here at the show, John Rosanvallon, president and chief executive of Dassault Falcon Jet Corp, says there are signs of a turnaround: "We started to see solid improvements in the market in late September. As a result, our fourth quarter sales and deliveries came in ahead of expectations."
Promising
From third to fourth quarter, the numbers doubled, resulting in an end-of-year total of 49 Falcons delivered. "It's too early to forecast how we'll fare this year," adds Rosanvallon, "but early activity levels so far in 2004 look promising. "
First deliveries of the Falcon 900EX EASy in November, as well as the continued popularity of the Falcon 2000 and 2000EX, are partially responsible for the upturn in numbers in the fourth quarter, says Rosanvallon.
MARK HANNANT
Source: Flight Daily News
