Daher is delivering the first 2020 TBM 940 (S/N 1321) this week to a customer in California while it expects the HomeSafe autoland system for that model to be certified by early July, aircraft division executive v-p Nicolas Chabbert said this morning during a press webinar. He added that Daher’s service center network for TBMs and Kodiaks has been fully functional during the Covid-19 crisis, but production of TBMs has slowed due to social distancing measures taken at its Tarbes, France manufacturing line.
The first TBM 940 left the company’s factory on Monday and is now in California, where it soon will be handed over to its customer. While the 2020 TBM 940s come factory-standard with HomeSafe, the autoland system won’t be activated until it receives near-simultaneous EASA and FAA certification, which Chabbert anticipates later next month or early July. TBM 940s built last year are eligible to be retrofitted with HomeSafe, which costs $85,000. HomeSafe is based on Garmin's Autoland technologies.
According to Chabbert, Daher has not seen any diminished demand for TBMs during the Covid-19 crisis, but said the company will likely not meet its 2020 forecast delivery for 50 TBMs due to the slower production output and the potential for supply chain issues later this year. However, he is optimistic that the company will meet the projected 15 Kodiak 100 shipments by year-end.
On the service side, Daher’s 74 TBM and Kodiak service centers around the globe have been fully running during the pandemic. In fact, Kodiak customer service director David Schuck said the service centers have seen an increase in maintenance activity as operators take advantage of the downtime to address deferred maintenance and/or aircraft upgrades.