Duncan Aviation has received commitments from three Citation Excel and Citation XLS operators for the Garmin G5000 flight deck upgrade program, the Lincoln, Nebraska-headquartered MRO provider said this week. Garmin has been working on the STC for the Excel/XLS G5000 upgrade, last month announcing it added a second jet to the development and flight-test program. Plans call for certification in early 2019.

Garmin, which brought a G5000-equipped XLS to NBAA BACE last month, sees a market for about 600 airplanes for the Excel/XLS program, with cost estimated to range from $500,000 to $550,000 per aircraft.

“With the support of valuable MRO partners like Duncan Aviation, the order backlog for the G5000 flight deck upgrade for the Citation Excel and XLS continues to grow,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin vice president of aviation sales and marketing. “Having the G5000-equipped Citation XLS flight-test vehicle on static display at NBAA in Orlando garnered exceptional customer interest.”

The upgrade involves a dual multi-sensor flight management system and three high-resolution, 14-inch, landscape-oriented flight displays with dual touchscreen controllers. It is designed to ease operation and pilot interface, with access to improved weather information synthetic vision, electronic flight charts, and aircraft synoptics. ADS-B Out and PBN/RNP 0.3 with LPV/APV approach capability are also included.