Sales of Dassault Falcon business jets have stopped sliding, according to Dassault Aviation’s results for 2017.

Orders increased to 41, up from 33, and three Falcon 5Xs were canceled (the program was terminated in December), down from 12. In deliveries, the 2017 tally is stable, at 49, but up from a forecast of 45.

Although those numbers can be seen as an improvement, handovers are still at their lowest level in two decades. Moreover, the backlog has decreased to 52, from 63. And some Falcon 5X cancellations have not been entered in the books yet.

The business jet market has been in the doldrums since the global financial crisis in 2007-08, but Dassault, as large business jets were spared from the downturn at the beginning, was not hit until 2013-14.

In defense, the Rafale fighter’s success in foreign sales is slowly materializing into accounts. Nine Rafales were delivered in 2017 – one to France and eight to Egypt. In addition, Dassault re-delivered to France a navy Rafale retrofitted to the current F3 standard.

The contract signed in December with Qatar, which exercised an option for 12 examples of the fighter, “will be booked when the first down payment is received,” the company says. The backlog is down to 101 Rafales as of Dec. 31, from 110 one year earlier.

Dassault will disclose its annual financial performance, including the values of the orders and deliveries, on March 8. CEO Eric Trappier said last year he expected 2017 revenues to be higher than 2016’s €3.6 billion (US$4 billion).