By Skies Magazine | October 21, 2019 Estimated reading time 1 minute, 52 seconds.
Now that it has closed its acquisition of Quest Aircraft of Sandpoint, Idaho, French OEM Daher Group is aiming to grow its presence in North America with a business model that covers both aerospace manufacturing and related services.
At a press conference on Oct. 21 at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas, Daher executives said the family-owned company – with annual revenues of $1.5 billion and 10,000 employees globally – is proud to become a Franco-American aircraft manufacturer with facilities in Tarbes, France and now in Sandpoint.
The French facility will continue to make the TBM 910 and 930 very fast turboprop aircraft, while the U.S. plant will assemble the Kodiak 100 single-engine utility turboprop which Daher acquired from Quest. The name of the American facility has been changed to Kodiak Aircraft Inc.
“Our acquisition of the Quest Aircraft Company is perfectly aligned with Daher’s strategy to intensify its business footprint in America,” said Daher CEO Didier Kayat. “In addition to adding the Kodiak to our aircraft portfolio, we have now gained a major competitive advantage for all of Daher’s aerospace business lines in North America.”
Moving forward, Kayat said the company will be focused on three key areas: manufacturing its two TBMs and the Kodiak, providing aerospace equipment and systems, and delivering logistics and services to the aerospace field.
“We are here to grow and here to last,” he said.
