ArianeGroup changes management and renews contract with Daher
ArianeGroup and its subsidiary Arianespace announce the departure of Stéphane Israël, Executive Chairman of Arianespace, and the appointment of David Cavaillolès to this position. The specialist in civil and military space launchers has also renewed its contract with industrial logistics provider Daher, worth €60 million ($61.8 million) over five years, for all ArianeGroup sites in France.
Stéphane Israël, Executive Chairman of Arianespace since 2013 and a member of ArianeGroup’s Executive Committee since 2017, has left the French civil and military space launcher group on 31 December 2024 to devote himself to a new professional project. He has been replaced by David Cavaillolès.
Since April 2013, he has supervised a total of 108 launches. “Following the successful maiden flight of Ariane 6 and the successful return to flight of Vega C, I am delighted to be leaving my successor a company that can rely on a solid order book to increase the number of launches from 2025 onwards, and which, with Ariane 6, will be able to seize the opportunities offered by a dynamic market undergoing profound change“, said Stéphane Israël.
David Cavaillolès, 36, graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and ENSAE Paris, joined the company in January 2025, also as Executive Chairman of Arianespace and a member of the ArianeGroup Executive Committee. He began his career in the French public sector, notably as ministerial advisor in charge of French space policy from 2017 to 2019. He then joined the digital services company Capgemini, where he held a number of managerial positions relating to the company’s business development.
Scaling up production
ArianeGroup has also announced the renewal and expansion of its collaboration with its main logistics provider since 2018, Daher, for a period of five years. The contract, worth €60 million over five years, covers all ArianeGroup sites in France. It also incorporates new perimeters linked to an increase in industrial production rates.
Following the successful maiden flight of Ariane 6 in July 2024, and the test firing of the M51.3, ArianeGroup is entering a phase of acceleration. The aim of this extended partnership with Daher is to optimise logistics flows, shorten delivery times and achieve new standards of industrial performance in both the civil and military sectors.
Supporting growth
In December 2024, the logistics company inaugurated a new training centre in Colomiers (31) to respond to the shortage of technical skills, while strengthening its role in industrial services. The Daher Learning Center can accommodate up to 40 learners for tailor-made training courses, short modules (1 to 3 days) or retraining programmes (1 to 3 months), in technical occupations such as systems mechanic, fitter or cabin integrator. The 1,000 m2 space includes a 650 m2 technical workshop.
” The Daher Learning Center is designed to meet both our internal training needs for current and future professions, and those of our customers, by taking into account their specific industrial challenges“,says Jérôme Leparoux, Daher’s Corporate Secretary and Director of Human Resources.
To strengthen its technical expertise, accelerate innovation and support the transition to greener aviation, Daher is also inaugurating Fly’in on 10 January 2025, its new centre of excellence at its Tarbes site, dedicated to hybrid and low-carbon aircraft and the development of the aircraft manufacturing business. The new centre includes a materials laboratory, rapid prototyping workshops and test benches. The inauguration comes at a time when the flight test campaign for EcoPulse, the hybrid-electric distributed propulsion aircraft demonstrator developed jointly by Daher, Safran and Airbus, is drawing to a close, providing essential lessons for achieving the objectives of decarbonising air transport by 2050.
“This is the first time we have tested a complete hybrid electric propulsion system in flight, and the tests were an important milestone in our technology roadmap,” said Eric Dalbiès, Safran Executive Vice President, Strategy, R&T and Innovation. “EcoPulse has enabled Daher to reach a crucial milestone in the development of a low-carbon aircraft. This project has not only helped us to design an operational operating system for a demonstration prototype, but also to grasp critical technological barriers,” emphasised Pascal Laguerre, Director of Technology at Daher.
As a subcontractor to Airbus for the production of parts for the A320, Daher is currently in discussions with the aircraft manufacturer, which wants to buy its 2 industrial sites at Carquefou and Malville near Nantes (France) in order to speed up its production rate and meet its delivery deadlines. The 2 plants, which employ around 250 people in total, specialise in the manual assembly of aluminium alloy panels.
