Dassault Aviation’s new Falcon service center in Melbourne, Florida, has been fully operational for almost a month, the company said this week. The purpose-built, 175,000-sq-ft facility, which officially opened on July 7, can accommodate up to 15 of the French aircraft manufacturer’s business jets at a time.

More than 100 technical staff have been recruited to support Falcon operators throughout the Americas from the maintenance, repair, and overhaul base at Melbourne Orlando International Airport (KMLB). The facility represents Dassault’s biggest investment in the U.S. since it opened its completions and service center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The additional MRO infrastructure, which also includes a paint shop and modifications capability, supports a growing fleet of Falcon 6X twinjets. Dassault is also preparing to provide support for its latest 10X model, which is expected to enter service in 2027.

Last month, Dassault reported that it delivered another 12 Falcons during the first half of 2025. The company’s backlog now stands at 75 units, and it is expecting to log 40 more Falcon sales during the course of this year.

LABACE opened yesterday at São Paulo Campo de Marte Airport (SBMT), a new venue for the event, but with amplified energy, perhaps driven by remarkable industry growth numbers. “For the first time, they’re all in double digits,” Flávio Pires, CEO of Brazilian business aviation association and LABACE organizer ABAG, said in his opening address. “Business jets are up 18%, turboprops 13%, turbine helicopters 10%,” with the Brazilian business aircraft fleet reaching 10,940 as of June.

The 20th edition of LABACE is the first outside its long-time home at São Paulo Congonhas Airport, from which it was expelled by construction to expand airline passenger capacity. The event is being greeted with open arms at the Brazilian Air Force’s PAMA installations at Campo de Marte. Air Force Commandant Marcelo Damasceno said the Air Force was proud to welcome the fair to the “cradle of civil aviation in São Paulo” and also the site of the air force’s first flight.

The acting president of Brazil’s ANAC aviation agency, Adriano Pinto de Miranda, also appeared and spoke of the importance of general aviation and business aviation to Brazil: reaching areas that have no scheduled operations. Particularly important to business aviation was the presence of city economic development secretary Rodrigo Goulart, who said that one of the administration’s priorities is preparing to receive eVTOLs for air-taxi services.

Elliott Aviation has begun installing Starlink in-flight connectivity systems on a Gulfstream G450 in Atlanta and a Challenger 300 at its Moline, Illinois headquarters. These are the company’s seventh and eighth Starlink installations, following earlier work on the Challenger 604, Beechcraft King Air 350, and Cessna Citation Excel.

“Starlink is a game-changer for business aviation connectivity,” said Elliott Aviation senior v-p of avionics and business development Bill Forbes. “It delivers the kind of speed, reliability, and global coverage that passengers expect from their service on the ground. With multiple successful installations already completed across a wide range of airframes, we’re proud to offer this capability to operators looking to modernize their in-flight experience.”

Starlink provides up to 220 Mbps download speeds with latency as low as 25 milliseconds. Its global satellite network supports reliable video calls, VPN access, large file transfers, and streaming, even on remote or long-haul routes.

Elliott Aviation offers Starlink installations at its locations in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Moline, and Des Moines, Iowa. With more than 20 Starlink systems sold and decades of avionics experience, the company said it continues to expand connectivity solutions for business aircraft.

Daher Aircraft is opening an office near São Paulo Congonhas Airport to support and expand its TBM and Kodiak fleet in Brazil, though aircraft sales for this region will still be conducted from the U.S.

Daher, which announced the move yesterday at LABACE 2025, views this as an opportune moment for the Kodiak. Products that serve the same market as aircraft like the Cessna Caravan have long delivery times.

Some 60 TBMs are Brazilian-owned, though not all are registered there, and about seven Kodiaks are in the country. The TBM fleet is almost entirely operated by professional pilots, with only one or two owner-pilots. Both single-engine turboprop families appeal to the rough field conditions common to agribusiness users, though they have other uses—an organization at Santarém on the Amazon uses two float-equipped Kodiaks for medevac operations.

Daher Aircraft spokesman Jeffrey Lenorovitz told AIN that Daher’s service network will be expanding in Brazil. The main service center for TBM is in Uberlandia, Minas Gerais (MG). This location was originally picked by MG-based Algar when it represented the TBM line, retained when Voar took over that representation, and continues to service customers when Voar decided to stop selling the aircraft.

Negotiations are underway for an additional center in the Brazilian southeast, he said. Meanwhile, the Kodiak is supported in Brazil by MTX in Sorocaba.

A Beechcraft King Air B300 crashed while on approach to Chinle Municipal Airport (E91) in Arizona yesterday, killing all four crewmembers onboard. The 1988-built turboprop twin, registered N534AW, had departed from its home base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to pick up a critical-care patient at E91 and return home with the patient. Weather reports from the closest facility to E91, some 37 nm away, indicated VMC with gusty winds.

ADS-B coverage stopped at about 12:40 p.m. local time as the King Air was maneuvering for the approach. The accident site is located on an access road that runs parallel to and is 950 feet away from the runway. Owned by the Navajo Nation, the non-towered public-use airport has an elevation of 5,550 feet and one asphalt landing strip—the 6,902-foot-long Runway 18/36.

Nearest weather reporting from Arizona’s Window Rock Airport (KRQE) at 11:53 a.m. and 12:53 p.m. included winds from 270/280 at 14 to 17 knots, gusting to 28 knots; visibility 10 miles, with no clouds under 12,000 feet; temperature 31/32 degrees C; dewpoint -1 degrees C; and an altimeter setting of 30.39 and 30.38, respectively.

The Part 135 air ambulance flight was being conducted by CSI Aviation, a long-time air charter company based in Albuquerque. According to NTSB records, CSI has not had a reportable incident or accident in its 46-year history.

Textron Aviation announced the first order for a Cessna Citation Longitude in Brazil yesterday at LABACE 2025. The undisclosed buyer already operates another Citation twinjet, as well as Cessna and Beechcraft turboprops.

According to Textron Aviation, it held a 40% market share of competitive turbine aircraft deliveries in Latin America last year. Nearly 1,000 Citations and more than 2,100 Cessna and Beechcraft turboprops now operate in the region.

The first Longitude in Brazil will be delivered in 2026 and used for personal and business travel. Capable of carrying up to 12 passengers, the super-midsize jet features a flat-floor cabin with fully berthable seats and a walk-in, accessible-in-flight baggage compartment. The jet can fly 3,500 nm and has a full fuel payload of 1,600 pounds and maximum cruising speed of 483 knots.

“With its class-leading performance, quiet cabin, and range, the Citation Longitude is perfectly suited to meet the needs of our customers in Brazil, one of the most dynamic aviation markets in the world,” said Textron Aviation v-p sales for Latin America Marcelo Moreira. “The Longitude complements the customer’s existing fleet by providing long range, speed, and delivering the exceptional comfort and performance expected from a Cessna Citation business jet.”

Bombardier expects to draw more than 150 flight attendants to its third annual Flight Attendant Safety Summit tomorrow at the company’s Laurent Beaudoin Completions Centre in Montreal. The day-long event will feature speakers including Fireside Partners president and CEO Don Chupp, who will provide a presentation on emergency response planning, and Aviation Secure founder and president Kristopher Cannon on “Closing the Security Gaps.”

Breakout sessions will cover building mental health resilience in preparation for the unexpected; safety procedures and response surrounding firefighting aboard aircraft; fatigue; and collaboration between flight and cabin crewmembers.

Bombardier, which hosts an annual Safety Standdown in Wichita for operators, recently highlighted the importance of expanding these efforts to flight attendants. The company’s chief of cabin experience and lead flight attendant, Bethan Williams-Velenosi, recently wrote an article that provided a call to action on safety.

“It’s time for candid reflection. Corporate aviation often lags behind our commercial counterparts in standardized, rigorous safety, particularly concerning cabin crew training,” said Williams-Velenosi, a 25-year flight attendant veteran. “Our commercial colleagues would never dream of allowing an unqualified individual to be responsible for passenger safety in the cabin. Why should we accept anything less in corporate aviation?”

Through her role on the Bombardier Safety Standdown Advisory Council, Williams-Velenosi said discussions turned to a need for an event specifically for the flight attendant community.