Daher is considering producing TBM 960s at a site next to its recently acquired aerostructures plant in Florida to tackle looming capacity constraints in France and possible protectionist moves by a new US administration.
Under the feasibility study, the French company would also transfer some assembly of Kodiak family utility aircraft, which it builds at a factory in Sandpoint, Idaho.
TBM aircraft have been manufactured in Tarbes, in southwest France, since the late 1980s. Daher bought the business in 2008 and added the Kodiak business from Quest in 2019.
However, speaking after the company’s annual media presentation in Paris on 7 February, chief executive Didier Kayat said that, after producing 56 TBM 960s in 2023, along with 18 Kodiak 100s and 900s, the two facilities are nearing capacity. Daher hopes to deliver “over 80” aircraft in 2024.
“By 90 aircraft we are very close to capacity,” he says. “We will have to invest in new capacity, most likely by opening a third production line.”
Daher acquired the Stuart site in southeast Florida from Triumph in 2022. It manufactures aerostructures there for Boeing and Gulfstream but is in a legal dispute with the former owner over alleged breaches of contract during the due diligence process.
However, Kayat says the company is committed long-term to the business, and has room for expansion next to the existing property, on which it has a 30-year lease.
Around 80% of Daher’s aircraft buyers are owner-pilots, which means its market is “highly sensitive” to lengthy waiting lists. “If they have to wait too long they will go to the competition,” says Kayat.
Daher also wants to hedge against the risk of what Kayat refers to as “a more protectionist president” being elected in November, and tariffs or other import restrictions on European-built aircraft.
Daher, which reported revenues of €1.65 billion ($1.78 billion) in 2023, is in the final stages of a two-decade strategy that has seen the 160-year-old family concern diversify from a largely logistics and services company to one that makes half its sales from aircraft and aerostructures manufacturing.
Last year, the company acquired manufacturing services company AAA and has merged it with an existing business to create a fourth, industrial services division, which supplies outsourced engineering and other skilled production line workers to customers such as Airbus. Its existing divisions are aircraft, industry (aerostructures), and logistics.
Kayat envisages Daher becoming a €2 billion business by 2027, with each division contributing roughly a quarter of sales.
In common with other aerospace businesses, Kayat acknowledges that delays and shortages in raw materials and recruitment challenges will remain a brake on growth in 2024.
The company remains committed to its French government-backed EcoPulse hybrid-electric demonstrator project with Airbus and Safran, and Kayat says Daher will “for sure” have a battery-powered aircraft – based on one of its existing platforms – on the market by 2027.
In December, its TBM 940-based EcoPulse flew for the first time from Tarbes, partly powered by six Safran electric motors, and Airbus-supplied high-voltage battery, as well as its Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 engine.
Kayat admits that colleagues “thought I was crazy” when he announced the 2027 ambition last year. “But we are definitely heading in that direction. It’s where we want to be as a company.”
