Dassault sold 7 and delivered 17 Falcons in the first half of 2019

Dassault Aviation’s sales report may have trailed others’ by some weeks, but the company sold seven Falcon business jets during the first half of 2019. It also delivered 17 Falcons during the same timeframe.

The French manufacturer blames uncertainty over European elections, geopolitical tensions and the trade war between the US and China for the low total of sales.

“Regarding business jets, a very flat market at the beginning of the year led to an order intake of only 7 Falcons at the end of June despite numerous prospects and negotiations started during the period,” the company said in an investor relations release.

However, the company closed further sales in July and August, giving Dassault a total of 26 Falcon business jet sales by the end of August.

The backlog at the end of June stood at 43 aircraft, 10 aircraft fewer than the same time last year. The book-to-bill, the number of aircraft that it delivered compared to the number of orders it took in, stood at 0.95.

At the end of this August, with the additional sales from July and August added in, the backlog stood at 56 aircraft. Backlog is the remaining number of orders that a manufacturer still needs to deliver.

Earlier in the year the manufacturer forecast that it would deliver 45 Falcon business jets across the full year.

The 17 business jets Dassault delivered in the first half is roughly in line with the 40% of full-year deliveries it has made in the first half of the year for the past five years.

Trappier also confirmed that its new Falcon 6X program is progressing as per plan and that it is still on course for the first customer deliveries in 2022.

“We want to see it fly as quickly as possible,” he said.