Daher today announced progress in line with its "Take Off 2027" strategic plan, under which the French aerospace group intends to achieve growth across four newly restructured business units. The company, which makes the TBM and Kodiak families of general aviation aircraft, announced a 27 percent improvement in 2023 revenues to reach €1.65 billion ($1.78 billion) but did not disclose profit and loss figures.
For 2024, Daher is targeting an 18 percent boost in revenues, to €1.95 billion. This will be based in part on an increase in aircraft deliveries, which totaled 74 last year, including 56 TBM 910s and 960s, as well as 18 Kodiak 100s and 900s. To improve liquidity, the group has arranged a new €250 million line of credit, with Commerzbank and Caisse d’Epargne Midi-Pyrénées joining existing backers.
By Jan. 1, 2026, the TBM and Kodiak models will fall under the new Daher Aircraft division alongside Daher Industry, the latter of which covers manufacturing activities for other airframers such as Gulfstream and Dassault. Last month, the group established the Daher Industrial Services unit, which includes maintenance, repair, and overhaul capability, and Daher Logistics is due to be set up by January 2025.
Daher chair Patrick Daher told reporters at a Paris press conference that, along with the wider French aerospace sector, the company continues to face significant supply chain challenges this year. He said productivity has still not recovered to 2019 levels, resulting in lower rates of aircraft deliveries.
Meanwhile, he added, inflationary pressures and shortages of raw materials are continuing to weigh the industry down. He said Daher is providing support, in some cases financial, for struggling suppliers that it needs to maintain production of aircraft.
Absorbing Acquisitions Has Brought Challenges
According to Daher CEO Didier Kayat, the Take Off 2027 project will focus on improving the group’s financial performance while also “transforming the management culture” as it works to absorb acquisitions that include French company AAA and the former Triumph aerostructures business in Stuart, Florida. He said Daher has found “quality and workforce difficulties” with the Stuart business that the company believes may have been “hidden” during the due diligence process in 2022. He added that the company is now taking legal action and looking at whether fraud may have been involved.
Having recruited almost 2,000 new staff in 2023, the group is looking to hire about as many again on both sides of the Atlantic and is rolling out an extensive in-house training plan to fill skills gaps. The group now employs around 13,000 people in 15 countries.
Kayat acknowledged that part of improving financial performance could include increasing aircraft prices and indicated that it is in discussions with customers on that point. “About 80 percent of costs come from our suppliers, who are facing increased costs and some of them are fragile and finding it hard to increase productivity,” he commented.
By 2027, Daher aims to “launch” its planned hybrid-electric aircraft for which it has been conducting its EcoPulse technology demonstrator program jointly with partners Safran and Airbus. Kayat told reporters that he could not give a firm guarantee that type certification would be achieved by then, adding that the company has yet to determine whether the production aircraft would be based on a TBM or Kodiak airframe.
Since its first flight in December, the technology demonstrator has made a total of four flights, logging more than 90 minutes. This project and Daher’s wider efforts to take a leadership position in decarbonizing aviation are now being led by Julie de Cevins, the group’s new head of sustainable development.