French Turboprop Maker Daher Acquires Quest Aircraft, Manufacturer Of Kodiak 100 Business Aircraft

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The France-based turboprop business aircraft manufacturer Daher announced in early June that it is acquiring Idaho-based Quest Aircraft, maker of the Kodiak 100 Series II aircraft aimed at corporate fleet owners, air-taxi services, and other customers. (Photo courtesy of Quest Aircraft.)

In a deal expected to finalize before year’s end, Daher, a French family-owned turboprop business aircraft manufacturer and industry and service equipment supplier, will acquire Quest Aircraft, the Sandpoint, Idaho,-based maker of the high-wing Kodiak 100 Series II model.

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Daher, maker of the TBM 910 and TBM 940 turboprop models, plans to complete its recently announced acquisition of Quest Aircraft before year’s end. (Photo courtesy of Quest Aircraft.)

While Daher bills its TBM family—which includes the TBM 910 and TBM 940 models—as the “fastest turboprop aircraft in its category,” Quest aims the Kodiak 100 Series II at corporate fleet owners, air taxi services, national parks, owner-operators, backcountry outfitters, and air ambulance services for business travel, float operations, special missions, medevac, skydiving, and other applications. Daher is exhibiting the Kodiak 100 Series II at the International Paris Air Show in mid-June.

Doing Business

Described as the heir to the “legendary Morane-Saulnier company” created in 1911, Daher claims to be the “oldest aircraft manufacturer worldwide” in operation. Acquiring Quest will reinforce two of its “strategic pillars,” Daher says. These include strengthening its aircraft manufacturing business by broadening its turboprop family and enhancing its “leading position in the turboprop segment,” as well as achieving a “major milestone in growth in its North American industrial and services operations.”

Daher CEO Didier Kayat said that in addition to “making Daher the world’s seventh largest aircraft manufacturer in business aviation,” acquiring Quest provides Daher with its first industrial site in the United States, thus reinforcing its position as a Tier 1 aerospace equipment and systems manufacturer and logistics and services provider. Eventually, Daher plans to develop synergies between its own aircraft product lines and those of Quest, including by introducing technologies and functionalities to the Kodiak that have helped bring the TBM aircraft success.

“An Aviator’s Aircraft”

Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of Daher’s business unit, said “the Kodiak 100 is an aviator’s aircraft, just like the members of our TBM family, and we are happy to bring together two communities of passionate pilots and operators with the acquisition of Quest.” Daher says it integrate Quest’s 240 employees in Sandpoint to the Daher Group. Tom Hamilton and David Voetmann originally founded Quest Aircraft to design and build the “ultimate humanitarian workhouse.” Later, Japan-based Setouchi Holdings, a former authorized Quest Aircraft dealer, acquired the company. Quest announced the 10-seat Kodiak 100 Series II model in May 2018, a decade after released the first Kodiak 100.

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Source: Quest Aircraft