French aerospace company Daher is one step closer to assembling TBM and Kodiak turboprops at its manufacturing site in Florida after securing a new lease on the facility.
The company said on 16 January that commissioners in Florida’s Martin County approved a new long-term lease, marking a “new milestone for the company’s presence in the strategic North American marketplace”.
“The newly approved lease at Witham Field provides the potential for additional enhancements at the Daher site, as well as opportunities for business growth,” Daher says.
“This includes Daher’s intention to create a final assembly line at the location to build the company’s own TBM/Kodiak turboprop-powered aircraft families, introducing the first production of state-of-the-art airplanes in Martin County.”
The lease covers a “multi-decade timeframe”, says Daher but is not more specific. The company will also invest $30 million to redevelop its facilities at Witham Field, according to a report from West Palm Beach news outlet WPTV.
Daher acquired the Stuart business in 2022 from Triumph Group as part of a push to expand its North American presence. At the site, it manufactures aerostructures, including horizontal stabilisers for Boeing 767s.
The company also owns single-engine turboprop brands TBM and Kodiak, assembling TBM 910s and 960s in Tarbes, France, and manufacturing Kodiak 100s and 900s in Sandpoint, Idaho.
“As we look to the future, the Witham Field location will offer a full scope of employment opportunities, ranging from aerostructures and aircraft assemblers to positions in quality and management,” says Daher’s general manager in Stuart, Stephen Stasiak.
Asked to elaborate about its plans for aircraft assembly in Stuart, the company says: “Daher is establishing the timeline and details for the TBM/Kodiak [final assembly line]”.
Daher last year told FlightGlobal it was considering producing aircraft in Stuart to help overcome capacity constraints in France and to head off protectionist policies potentially coming from a new US administration.
At the time, Daher chief executive Didier Kayat said TBMs and Kodiaks faced capacity constraints and could accommodate production of only about 90 aircraft annually. Daher delivered 82 aircraft in 2024 wants to further hike output.
“We will have to invest in new capacity, most likely by opening a third production line,” Kayat said last year.
Daher says the extended lease enables continued ”production of large airframe structures… as a tier one supplier to major aircraft manufacturers.”
Daher employs 700 people at Stuart. With Boeing having last year announced a decision to sunset 767 production when the current backlog is depleted, the French firm is clearly also looking for alternative uses for the plant over the longer term.
Following its acquisition of the facility, Daher in 2023 sued former owner Triumph in a New York court. The lawsuit alleges that prior to the sale Triumph misrepresented aspects of the Stuart complex by failing to disclose having stopped complying with Boeing’s specifications. That case is ongoing.
