Dassault has further extended its global MRO reach with the announcement that it has acquired the European maintenance activities of the TAG Aviation Group.
The move comes just weeks after Dassault snapped up aviation company Execujet’s worldwide maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations in across the Asia Pacific, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa.
The integration of TAG into Dassault operations will take place over the next few months, once all necessary authorisations have been received.
“The acquisition of the maintenance activities of TAG Aviation, a major MRO provider, will allow Dassault Aviation to reinforce its European service centre network,” Eric Trappier, President and CEO of Dassault Aviation said.
“With TAG Maintenance Services, we intend to develop further a network of excellence, and to support TAG’s different aircraft clients with the same commitment to service quality while expanding the share of Falcon maintenance activities controlled by the Dassault Group Mansour Ojjeh, President of TAG Group, the majority shareholder of TAG Aviation said the company had been working hard over the past 20 years to build up a high quality maintenance organisation, specialising in the Dassault and Bombardier product lines”
“During that time we have built a strong relationship with Dassault Aviation, based upon mutual trust and respect. Given the many challenges faced by independent MROs in the current industry environment, we are pleased to sell this segment of TAG Aviation to a respected OEM who values its employees and shares TAG’s high business standards.”
Meanwhile, other manufacturers and operators are keeping a weather eye on developments given Dassault’s increasing grip on the MRO space.
In Australia, for example Execujet’s base at Melbourne Essendon Airport is an FBO and offers MRO services under an Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Certificate of Approval and New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approval. It is also a United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 145 Repair Station.
Further, ExecuJet is an authorised service centre for Hawker Beechcraft, Gulfstream, Bombardier and Embraer at Melbourne. It also conducts maintenance work at its Sydney and Perth facilities.
The company had about 100 staff in Australia across aircraft operations, pilots, flight attendants, engineers, administration and sales. There were a further 50 people working at its Asian bases, including in Bali, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Some of its facilities around the world also had European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification.
Speaking at the Avalon Airshow earlier this week, Embraer Executive Jets vice-president for sales for the Middle East and Asia Pacific, Claudio Camelier, said the company was in talks with Execujet in light of the Dassault purchase.
Execujet also supports Embraer’s business jets in the Middle East and Europe.
“Of course it is a point of concern to us the acquisition by Dassault,” Camelier said. “But our team is in discussions with them and making sure that we have the proper setup in place so they can continue supporting us in a positive way.”
“We are good partners with Execujet. They have always provided very good service to our customers and we have always worked quite well together.”
“But it is a big change in the company, so of course we are monitoring the situation. We are confident that we will have a positive outcome.”
Meanwhile, Airflite also provides service to Embraer in Australia out of its base in Perth.
The two Dassault MRO acquisitions come less than a year after United States-based Jet Aviation bought aircraft sales and support company Hawker Pacific for US$250 million.
Jet Aviation is part of aerospace and defence giant General Dynamics, the parent company of Gulfstream.
