Dassault Falcon 2000LXS Charter

Dassault Aviation's lineage in business aviation stretches back to Marcel Dassault's conviction that the discipline required to build a Mirage fighter jet should, by rights, produce the finest executive transport in the sky. The Falcon 2000 family, introduced in 1994 as a twin-engine successor to the trijet Falcon 900, carried that conviction forward into a more economical package without sacrificing the cabin width or build quality that had made the 900 a benchmark. Over the following two decades, Dassault refined the platform through successive variants, each adding range, efficiency, or handling capability.

The 2000LX, launched in 2007, stretched the aircraft's legs to 4,000 nautical miles through winglet integration and increased fuel capacity. Then, in October 2012 at the NBAA convention in Orlando, Dassault unveiled the 2000LXS — a definitive synthesis of the LX's transatlantic range and the 2000S's exceptional short-field performance. Full-span inboard leading-edge slats, combined with optimised aerodynamics and Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308C engines running on FADEC, gave the LXS the ability to operate from runways as short as 4,800 feet at maximum take-off weight. First customer deliveries followed in 2013.

The EASy II flight deck — developed with input from line pilots rather than purely from engineering teams — sits at the heart of the aircraft's operational story. Its intuitive human-machine interface reduces crew workload substantially on long sectors, while the optional FalconEye Combined Vision System fuses synthetic and enhanced vision imagery to enable approaches in visibility conditions that would ground competing aircraft. By the time production of the LXS reached maturity, more than 140 frames had been delivered worldwide, cementing its reputation as the most versatile aircraft in the large-cabin twin category.

Step through the airstair door of the Falcon 2000LXS and the first impression is of space that feels disproportionate to the aircraft's external dimensions. The cabin measures 26.3 feet in length, 7.7 feet in width, and 6.2 feet in height — dimensions that Dassault describes, with some justification, as widebody. The width, in particular, is a distinguishing feature: the 7.7-foot cross-section matches or exceeds cabins found on jets of considerably greater size and cost, and allows four-abreast seating with a genuine centre aisle rather than the squeeze found in narrower designs.

Standard configuration seats eight passengers in a forward club-four arrangement and a rear club-four or divan grouping, with the option to increase to ten seats for larger parties. The galley, positioned forward beside the crew entry door, is equipped for hot meal service on sectors of any length. Baggage compartment volume stands at 134 cubic feet, accessible from the external door and designed to accommodate golf bags, ski equipment, and oversized cases — items that charter passengers routinely need to bring. Importantly, the hold is pressurised and heated.

Acoustic engineering is a priority on the LXS. Active noise and vibration suppression, combined with careful structural damping, produces a cabin sound level that enables normal conversation at cruise without raised voices. The cabin altitude at maximum cruising height is maintained at the equivalent of approximately 6,000 feet, meaningfully lower than many competitors, which translates to less fatigue on sectors of five hours or more. Dassault's FalconCabin HD+ system provides integrated lighting, temperature, entertainment, and connectivity management from a single touchscreen interface, and Ku-band Wi-Fi is available across the fleet.

The Falcon 2000LXS achieves a certified range of 4,000 nautical miles at Mach 0.80 carrying eight passengers with NBAA IFR reserves — sufficient for London Farnborough to Dubai, Paris Le Bourget to Mumbai, or Geneva to Nairobi without a fuel stop. Maximum operating Mach number is 0.862, and the aircraft cruises most efficiently between Mach 0.78 and 0.82. Service ceiling sits at 47,000 feet, placing it comfortably above the weather systems and routing conflicts that affect lower-altitude operations.

Where the LXS genuinely separates itself from the wider large-cabin twin market is runway performance. The full-span slat system reduces approach speed and shortens the balanced field length to a figure that opens up airports categorically inaccessible to the Bombardier Challenger 350, the Embraer Praetor 600, and most of their contemporaries. Airports such as London City (LCY), Innsbruck (INN), Lugano (LUG), Courchevel (CVF), and Biarritz (BIQ) are all within operational reach, a capability that is genuinely valuable on European routes where the nearest mainline airport may add an hour or more of surface transfer time.

The two PW308C engines, each rated at 7,000 lb of thrust, are FADEC-controlled and enrolled in Pratt & Whitney's ESP on-condition maintenance programme, which provides cost-per-hour predictability for operators and, by extension, more competitive charter pricing for clients. Fuel burn at typical cruise conditions is approximately 220 US gallons per hour, placing the LXS among the more economical aircraft in the large-cabin segment.

The Falcon 2000LXS is optimised for European and European-to-Middle East flying. London to Dubai at approximately 3,400 nautical miles sits well within its certified range with a comfortable fuel margin; the same is true of London to Riyadh, Paris to Muscat, and Geneva to Doha. These sectors run between five and six and a half hours at typical cruise speed, well within the aircraft's endurance and squarely in the sweet spot of its operating economics.

Within Europe the short-field capability transforms the route map. A client collecting a party from London City rather than Farnborough or Biggin Hill, then delivering them to Innsbruck for a ski week before positioning to Nice for the weekend, can accomplish all three legs without changing aircraft type or accepting a ground transfer penalty. The same flexibility applies on the other side of the Mediterranean: Marrakech Menara, Sharm el-Sheikh, and Dubrovnik are all accessible directly, without transiting a hub.

Westbound transatlantic operations are theoretically possible with a reduced payload, though London to New York typically requires a technical stop at Keflavik or Gander with a full complement of eight passengers in adverse wind conditions. For clients with genuine transatlantic requirements and groups of the same size, the Falcon 7X or the Gulfstream G550 are the more appropriate choices. Within its designed envelope, however — Europe, the Middle East, and North and East Africa — the LXS has few equals at its price point.

Charter rates for the Falcon 2000LXS in the current market sit between approximately £5,200 and £5,800 per flight hour inclusive of standard operational costs, equivalent to roughly $6,500–$7,200 USD or €6,000–€6,700. Actual all-in pricing will reflect sector length, positioning, landing and handling fees at the airports involved, and any applicable overflight permits — factors that your broker will itemise in a full trip quote.

On representative sectors, a London Farnborough to Dubai routing for up to eight passengers would typically be quoted in the region of £38,000–£45,000 one-way depending on season, routing, and aircraft availability. A London to Moscow Vnukovo sector runs approximately £20,000–£26,000. A Geneva to Marrakech positioning would fall in the £18,000–£24,000 range. For European capital-to-capital hops — Paris to Zurich, London to Milan — pricing starts around £12,000–£16,000, though the LXS is rarely the most cost-efficient choice for sub-two-hour sectors where a super-midsize such as a Challenger 350 will serve equally well at lower cost.

The aircraft's maintenance economics are a structural advantage for operators and therefore for charter clients. Pratt & Whitney's ESP programme removes the risk of unbudgeted overhaul expenditure, and Dassault's own service network — with facilities across Europe, the Middle East, and North America — ensures consistently short AOG resolution times. The combination of manageable operating costs and genuine large-cabin utility makes the LXS one of the most commercially rational aircraft in the charter fleet, particularly for operators running European and Middle Eastern programmes.

The Falcon 2000LXS's most direct competitors are the Bombardier Challenger 350, the Embraer Praetor 600, and the Cessna Citation Longitude. Against the Challenger 350, the LXS holds a clear cabin-width advantage — 7.7 feet versus 7.3 feet — and a meaningfully longer range (4,000 nm versus approximately 3,200 nm), though the 350's newer cockpit technology and lower charter rates make it a strong option for purely European flying. The Praetor 600 matches the LXS on range at 4,018 nm and undercuts it on charter cost, but its 7.1-foot cabin width and less established short-field credentials give the LXS the advantage on routes requiring secondary-airport access.

Against aircraft in the heavy-jet segment — the Gulfstream G450, the Bombardier Global 5000 — the LXS gives away range and cabin length, but competes effectively on charter cost and, critically, on the runway flexibility that allows it to serve airports those aircraft cannot. A client routing through London City, Cannes Mandelieu, or Lugano will find the LXS a practical choice that a G450 simply cannot replicate.

The Falcon 8X, Dassault's current flagship twin, is the natural progression from the LXS: 6,450 nm range, a longer cabin, and updated avionics. The LXS continues to represent the strongest value in the Falcon family for clients whose missions concentrate in the 2,000–4,000 nm band, and whose itineraries include at least occasional visits to restricted airports.

The Falcon 2000LXS suits a specific and commercially important profile: the European executive or high-net-worth traveller whose itinerary takes them regularly between the major continental hubs and the Gulf, who values genuine cabin comfort rather than a compromise between size and range, and who occasionally needs to land at an airport that wider aircraft cannot access. It is the intelligent choice for London–Dubai, Geneva–Doha, and Paris–Tel Aviv missions, and equally for ski-season charters that begin in London and end at a high-altitude Alpine strip.

Parties of up to eight travelling in a club-seating configuration will find the cabin genuinely comfortable on sectors of five to six hours, with enough galley provision and connectivity for productive working or relaxed dining. Those who regularly need to carry more than eight passengers, or who require non-stop transatlantic range, should look at the Gulfstream G550 or Falcon 7X. But for the very large number of charter missions that fall within a 3,500–4,000 nm radius of Western Europe, the Falcon 2000LXS remains one of the most complete packages in the market — and one of the few that allows you to land somewhere the competition cannot.