ExecuJet MRO Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dassault Aviation, has world-class MRO facilities in Africa, Asia, Australia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East where major repair and refurbishment activities are conducted. Specialising in airframe, avionics and engine maintenance; aircraft engineers are trained and certified on a wide range of aircraft, including: Dassault, Bombardier, Embraer, Gulfstream, Hawker and various others. In an Exclusive interview, Nick Weber, Regional VP, Middle East, ExecuJet MRO Services speaks with Vishal Kashyap, Managing Editor, Aviation World on the various MRO capabilities of the ME facility, their customers and USP of being in Dubai. Excerpts…

What are the services provided at the ExecuJet MRO Services Middle East?

A: We provide comprehensive services across several OEM products and after being acquired by Dassault, over the last five years, we support the whole Dassault product line as well. That’s from the Falcon 8X, the 7X, the 6X now, that’s just been going into service, and the Falcon 900s and the 2000s. We also support all the Bombardier Business Aircraft right now for the 7500 through all the Global series, down to the Challenger series, the 650, 605, 604, Challenger 350, Challenger 300, and the Legacy 45 and 60.

We also still support, although the numbers are dwindling within region, the 789 series Hawker aircraft. In addition, as an Embraer authorized service center, we support the Legacy, the Phenom series, Praetor series. In fact, all the Embraer business aircraft line. Additionally, up and above, we obviously are Honeywell, the Rockwell Collins, GE, and a Rolls-Royce service center and we support those engine platforms.

More to do with line maintenance and engine removal refits on those product lines which enhances our offering to the general aviation community. When they bring the aircraft in, we can do the engine work, the airframe work. Over and above, we look at expanding more into avionics modifications and that’s a growing business for us. We also have the back shops, which is the battery line; wheel shop, where we do wheel overhauls and then we have the NDT line ( Non Destructive Testing), which is also a growing business for us.

What are the MRO capabilities in terms of fleet maintenance & approvals of this facility?

A: ExecuJet MRO Services Middle East is capable of base maintenance up to and inclusive of C-checks. So, those are the real heavy inspections. Right down through the minor inspections and obviously line and base capability on all those 4-set aircraft that I had mentioned above. We also support 18 different NAA approvals (Civil Aviation Regulators) the major ones being the local GCAA, the FAA and the Indian DGCA and in terms of capability, they’re much aligned ,so, we’re capable of C-checks across all those 18 approvals that we hold.

Dubai being one of the hubs of aviation, the demand must be huge in terms of maintenance. How are you equipped and how do you manage the service for your clients?

A: Well, firstly, you’ve got the installed base in the Middle East, and a large quantity or a large amount of those aircraft are actually based in Dubai. So, we’re supporting all those regional customers. But around 45% of our work is supporting visiting aircraft, aircraft transiting through Dubai and it could be even Indian operators, and they might be on their way to Europe, or we see a lot of European aircraft coming into the Middle East, and they might be on their way to Asia. So, we support a large amount of those aircraft as well.

AOG is a crucial issue and how do you tackle these issues to minimise the clients timelines?

A: Internally, we’ve got the teams that cover base maintenance activity, and we also have a line team that specifically focus on doing line maintenance activities. And they work 12 hours a day on site. However, they are on call 24×7. They are widely licensed, so a lot of the engineers or most of the engineers can be dispatched quite promptly to wherever the aircraft is. And we support AOG activities across, obviously across the region, but we’ll go right down to Southern Africa, Zambia, Seychelles, Maldives, Kazakhstan. So, we’re supporting a lot of aircraft throughout the region.

Often, sometimes aircraft that are on ground are hindered through the registry that they might hold. So, even though OEMs might come to us, and we’ve had it in the past with the local GCA, where we’ve had to go to Reykjavik to support an aircraft. So, we’ve got extensive reach on AOG. It’s such a crucial phase of airside operations that any operators would not like to face and need a quick solution to that big issue, actually.

Have you found that sometimes if you help an operator out with an AOG, that maybe because of the goodwill that’s been developed, because you help them in that difficult situation, that it’s then helped you maybe later on to get some of the heavy check work done?

A: Most definitely. I think just recently there was an operator with a Falcon that was based out of Europe. They had never visited our facility. We assisted them. Subsequently, they visited us for some mining work. They are looking seriously at bringing in C-checkers later in 2025. So, that’s a good example. It’s a window for us to go out there. That’s why we see a lot of importance in obviously supporting AOG activities. We have got a dedicated team to do line maintenance, but they also support the AOG. If we haven’t got the depth within that team, then we pull personnel from the hangar floor to support their activities.

Q: Do you find that being in Dubai might be a strategic advantage for you because is so well connected to different points in the world that you can get there?

A: Exactly! Geographically, we’re very centrally located and, yes, we have got all the airliners as you said, supporting multiple destinations. So, it’s very easy for us to get there promptly.

Whether it might be Seychelles or Mauritius, or it might be Nairobi or, Dar es Salaam, it turns out we can get there very quickly because there’s a lot of frequency of flights going into those regions.

Q: What’s the ownership structure of this facility?

A: It’s 100% owned by Dassault Aviation. So, Dassault acquired all the MROs across all the regions from Lux Aviation. So, it was in Belgium, we had here the Middle East, South Africa, Malaysia, and Australia. So, all those entities transferred over 100% ownership to Dassault Aviation. So, we don’t have a local partner here in the Middle East. In fact, we were the third company that was allowed to register an LLC with no local partner when they relinquished their equipment. About five years ago, they changed their ruling.

Q: Are you also facing supply chain issue for parts? How you are managing it and what’s the impact?

A: Well, it’s no different for us and I think its globally, so it’s impacting everybody. But we are learning there’s means and ways of adapting. Obviously, ExecuJet has a very wide reach, and we’ve got very good relationships, and very good vendors and suppliers that we deal with. And often, it’s about the relationship and who might get the part first. But I think everybody has become accustomed to the fact that, yes, there are constraints within the industry, you know, the OEMs getting parts from their vendors, but everybody’s working positively towards it.

Operators are also very understanding now, that we found as well. So, it’s a case of just having a wide network, good relationships, and it definitely facilitates, usually, faster supply of those parts.

Q: Being the growing business aviation market, how much of your business does come from India?

A: We have been in the region 20 years, and we were initially located at DXB across two facilities. We had a purpose-built facility, and then we leased a hangar next door from the Dubai Airport authorities. But there’s always been the realization that with the commercial traffic growing into DXB and the intent to develop DWC, that one day business aviation will move out. So, it goes back to 2011 when we looked at establishing and started planning to relocate the facility in May 2023.

So, we’ve been in the facility for 18 months now and the reason for the relocation was one, to cater for business aviation community using DWC more, but also for the growth and the prospective growth within the region.
We have the huge hangar that we currently have, which there was an incremental 15% increase. However, when I say 15%, we used to hangar a lot of aircraft at DXB. Now, all the space is 100% dedicated to MRO.

Q: At one go how many aircrafts can be parked and maintained at the facility?

A: So, I’m talking across the whole spaces, hangarage, office, back shops, etc. But the hangar currently can maintain, on average up to 16 aircraft under maintenance. Obviously, with maintenance activities, you need space around the aircraft to facilitate moving on work stands, etc. We can, if we had to solely probably utilize area for hangarage, it would go up to 20, possibly even a little more than that. In terms of ramp space for line maintenance, we have a dedicated area in front of the hangar that is also utilized, and also in the winter months where it’s cooler, and we can support up to 10 aircraft on the ramp area, still allowing us to have access to new aircraft in and out of the hangar.

So, this could be mixed kind of jets? Yes, it’s mixed. Predominantly, we’ve seen the larger business jets, the Global Series now, Challenger, a few jets, not too many, but a lot of legacy aircraft. And of course, very much so, the growing numbers of Dassault products in the region, the 7X, 8X. It was displayed here also.

Q: How much Indian market is important for you in terms of business?

A: The Indian market is very important to us. It always has been and it’s a market that is, to be honest, not easy to get into. Obviously, as you’re aware, India got vast capabilities. So, a lot of the maintenance is done in country. What we are seeing though is for the big inspections, where maybe they don’t have the ground support equipment, or in case where they need engine changes, they are then coming to our facility. But we continue to work with the operators in India to try and boost that. More specifically now, obviously, the Falcon customers, I should imagine that the 6X is going into India. Line maintenance will definitely be supported there most probably in Mumbai and Delhi.

But the bigger work or any activity that is beyond their capability, we will support, whether it be here or we’ll go and support it in India. So, that’s where we see it. I wouldn’t like to give you a percentage because it fluctuates year on year.

Q: In India also, MRO capabilities are growing. So, do you think that if they are going to further enhance their more capabilities with more certifications, a major chunk of MRO maintenance would be taken care in India? Is there also a competitive challenge for ExecuJet from the Indian MRO companies?

A: Yes, I would think as they grow their capability, it will. Because, not only from the Indian-based aircraft, it might be more foreign aircraft. Because, obviously, as they build their capability, they might attract more foreign registered aircraft. However, in terms of volume and the amount of aircraft within the Middle East, that’s growing as well at a tremendous rate.

So, I think our facility is not dependent on the Indian market. And, we would like to realize more work from the market, that it’s more driven by the Middle East market and what’s happening within the specific region itself.

So, obviously, the density of aircraft decreases as we spread our breadth. But, we’re still supporting a lot of aircraft. I mean, we’ve got a number of customers in Pakistan as well. We’ve got some customers in Asia that we support as well.

How you see the overall growth of the MRO sector for the business aviation segment?

A: Well, it’s obviously aligned with one, new aircraft sales, but obviously, the existing fleet. And, it’s growing proportionally. We’ve seen a big uptick over the last few years in the need for support.Hence, our growth one. But, there’s obviously a lot of competitors also coming in the region to support that growth. Which is not necessarily a bad thing either, because competition just makes you stronger.

Certainly, that’s our ExecuJet view. But, the demand will grow, obviously. But, I’m sure, in terms of the MRO sector, it’s always going to keep at pace with the aircraft inventory that’s out there.What we are seeing, or have seen in the past, is a number of aircraft moving to the US. But, recently, we’re seeing a lot of those aircraft coming back into the region again. So, the installed base is continually growing.

The amount of aircraft has just ballooned over those years. And, as I said, it’s always tied in with the growth of the Pacific region, as you know, the Middle East. So, it’s prospering.

What’s the USP that makes ExecuJet the preferred MRO partner for any airlines? And second thing, as a country perspective, how lucrative is Dubai in terms of taxes?

A: Well, to answer the first half of your question, obviously, at ExecuJet, one of our motto is service excellence and we do that globally across all the regions. We wanted to be the premier service provider in all the regions. And that shows in our facilities, our staff, our investment in training and all the ground support equipment that we operate. So, that’s really our main driver.

We excel, we train staff, we identify individuals that have huge potential to grow within the industry. We support training providers locally with internship to contribute to the industry because as we know, there’s a shortage of trained personnel in the MRO sector. And that’s a global shortage, but we’re contributing healthily towards that.

In terms of being attractive in the Middle East, from a personal point of view, yes, but bear in mind that the GCC introduced VAT, what is it, five years ago? And of recent, well, as of January,there’s company tax as well that’s been introduced to earnings above a certain amount. So, as the growth and the dependency lessens on oil and more dependent on other sectors, obviously, you can expect taxation to be introduced much as it is anywhere else in the world. However, the lure of Dubai in itself and the Middle East sort of outweighs those negativities, and that’s really what’s attracting people into the region and will continue to do so.