Return to 2000: Captain of the Great Powers

At the gate of Longcheng Community, Li Rongxian stopped here, wondering whether he should go in or not.After lingering at the door for a long time, the long-awaited call finally came. Li Rongxian looked at the phone, heaved a sigh of relief, and finally connected.

"Lee, did you go to find that Xu Cang?" As soon as the connection was made, the voice of Airbus plenipotentiary Leo came from the receiver, and his tone sounded very anxious.

Li Rongxian showed enough respect for the executives of this headquarters, and he continued to receive a clear instruction that dealing with Xu Cang only depends on his personal decision, and Li Rongxian really can't support it.

"I went to him once, and I asked him not to disclose the relevant information, but he doesn't seem to care that much." Li Rongxian's mind was still flashing at the moment in the ward.He really can't figure it out, there are really men in this world who don't love beautiful women, it's really strange.

"CAAC is going to suspend the airworthiness certificate and type approval certificate of Airbus 320. This is a serious matter. We must not take it lightly this time." Leo, a white man, may not be able to understand Chinese if he does not distinguish it carefully. He came out as a foreigner, so he had no problem communicating with Li Rongxian in Chinese.

"Even the type approval certificate has been revoked, so the export of the aircraft has been affected?" Li Rongxian began to panic when he heard so much from his boss. I got two certificates.

Leo also gritted his teeth: "CAAC's grounding of the 320 aircraft is already unstoppable. After the plane is salvaged, we can only try our best to find out the reason. I don't know Xu Cang very well. It seems that he mentioned that he heard the drive shaft. Could the sound of Beng Duan be misheard, is this person reliable?"

"Although this man is only in his 20s, he is very powerful. No, among all the pilots I have seen, there is no one who is more exaggerated than him. He said that when he heard the sound of the drive shaft breaking, I felt seven It is believable to achieve more than that." Li Rongxian also added: "By the way, he will also participate in the Boeing 777's high-altitude engine limit test flight soon."

As an Airbus executive, Leo obviously also knows some inside news about Boeing: "Is he the one who wants to partner with Ye Xian?"

"That's right!" Li Rongxian confirmed, "However, he should only participate in the third Daocheng Airport test."

"The airport test on the high plateau is the most difficult, if this is normal." The other end of the phone was obviously silent for a moment, and after a while, the voice came again: "Now the headquarters has only one request for you. He doesn't give any interviews, don't talk about 9451 with anyone other than CAAC, especially about the broken engine drive shaft."

Li Rongxian looked up at the four big characters in Longcheng Community, feeling very uncertain in his heart: "But I feel like he's not good enough."

"That means you didn't give enough." Leo immediately said: "Go back and plan carefully, and I will let the headquarters public relations directly connect with you. The budget is 1000 million, and I don't believe that 1000 million can't stop him."

"1000 million!?" Now even Li Rongxian was a little terrified. Even in the future of inflation, 1000 million is not a small amount, let alone 2000.Li Rongxian couldn't help questioning: "Is there a need for so many?"

At this time, Leo's courage as a senior executive of the headquarters is reflected: "Lee, is it more than 1000 million? As long as one aircraft is sold, there will be several 1000 million. But now this market with a scale of thousands of aircraft in the future is affected by After a serious shock, do you still care about 1000 million? As long as we can ensure that there are no accidents in this incident, there will be opportunities to double the money from them in the future."

Leo's meaning is very simple, don't care about those petty profits, settle this matter, and prevent all possibilities of public opinion fermenting is the top priority.

Li Rongxian actually understood this truth, but the tens of millions of hush money alone was too cheap for Xu Cang, and he was still a little upset.However, the boss has said so, so he naturally won't have any additional opinions, so he just obeys.

After hanging up the phone, Li Rongxian didn't go into the community.It can be seen that the Airbus headquarters is very concerned about getting Xu Cang to shut up, so let's wait until the headquarters PR contacts him to discuss a countermeasure.

In Qizhou Shanhang Airlines Safety Supervision Manager's Office, Yi Feng, director of the strategy department of National Airline, was explaining something to Deng Wenjia helplessly, while Deng Wenjia showed displeasure, and seemed not to be very proud of his friend.

"The grounding of the Airbus 320 was really unexpected, and our NUS definitely didn't want it." Yi Feng said with a wry smile: "We will compensate your company for the related losses during the grounding period. of."

Yi Feng, the senior executive of NUS Airlines, came to Shandong Airlines specifically for the grounding of the Airbus 320.Although the document has not been issued yet, it is already a certainty, and the bureau has also informed the airlines with the Airbus 320 fleet in advance, so that they can prepare earlier.

The loss of National University Airlines in the Airbus 320 grounding incident is still acceptable, because they are mainly Boeing models, and there are not many Airbus aircraft. The most Airbus models are also 330 series, and the Airbus 320 is basically They were all handed over to Shandong Airlines when optimizing the fleet not long ago.

As a result, almost all the grounding losses that should have been borne by China National Airlines were passed on to Shandong Airlines.Originally, Shandong Airlines spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build another Airbus system for itself in order to receive the Airbus 320 aircraft forced by China National Airlines.As a result, the money was spent. While waiting to make money, the Airbus 320 was grounded, and it was a loss to grandma’s house.

It was unethical to hand over the plane to Shandong Airlines before, but now Shanhang Airlines has blocked another shot for itself, and National University Airlines can't hold back no matter how thick-skinned it is.Therefore, after confirming that the Airbus 320 was about to be grounded, National Airlines sent Yi Feng over to negotiate compensation for the grounding.

If Shandong Airlines were to survive this wave of grounding, it would have to pay for all the little money it had saved over the past year.Although National University Airlines is not a good person, it still has a bottom line, and is willing to make a fortune from Shandong Airlines.

"Tsk tsk tsk, aren't you NUS high-level people smiling now? You take all the good things, and we take all the blame. Just because your NUS helped us when we were established, we are going to do bloodletting feed you?"

Yi Feng also knew that this matter was unreasonable for him, and he had a good personal relationship with Deng Wenjia, so his face suddenly became dull, and he blushed in a rare way: "So the higher-ups asked me to come and talk about compensation. .You don't want to be so rebellious, why bother?"

"We're really fucked up, why do you dare to say here?" Deng Wenjia's forehead was throbbing with veins: "It's just an accident in a plane, and now half of our maintenance department has been transferred to investigate, which made us Now the flight operation of the Boeing fleet is affected. You also have to calculate the salvage fee of the plane. The plane entered the sea water, and I don’t know if it can be used in the future. I have to record the loss.”

In order to investigate whether there are maintenance problems, the bureau directly took away all the maintenance personnel who participated in the daily maintenance of 9451 in the first half month for investigation.

The maintenance department of Shandong Airlines is not big, so the first-line staff of Shandong Airlines' maintenance and support department suddenly became nervous, and there was even a situation that they could not guarantee the Boeing fleet flight on time due to insufficient manpower.This made the Shandong Airlines executives quite annoyed.

Needless to say, the salvage fee for the aircraft, the key is that the 9451 sunken aircraft will still be usable in the future.

In fact, to be reasonable, apart from the complete scrapping of the two engines, the rest of the aircraft may still be usable.But the problem is that the aircraft is immersed in seawater, which is salt water, and the salt in it will have an extremely bad effect on the structure of the aircraft.

If it sinks in fresh water, it can be rescued by catching it.Sinking in the sea, it is estimated that the plane will be completely scrapped, which is not a small loss.

Since National Airline said it wanted compensation, it was necessary to make a list of the items that need to be compensated.

"Wait, wait!" Seeing that Deng Wenjia wanted the lion to speak loudly, Yi Feng quickly stopped: "Let's talk about these things later, let's talk about 9451 again. Are there any clues from the bureau's investigation now?"

"The plane was just salvaged today, and the formal investigation has not yet started. What can we do?" Deng Wenjia also felt that the difficulty of this investigation would be very high.It was mainly the No. [-] engine that exploded, although there was an engine cowling package, so that most of the engine wreckage could be kept inside.However, after the water impact of the seamount forced landing, too many fine parts were washed into the sea, and many of them have clues to explain the engine explosion, which will bring great obstacles to the investigation of the incident.

The only hope now is that the part that caused the engine explosion was not washed into the sea.If it rushed into the sea, the follow-up investigation would be like finding a needle in a haystack, and the investigation time would be infinitely extended.

In fact, the investigation of civil aviation incidents is not uncommon.It is mainly related to the grounding of the Airbus 320 this time.According to the current attitude of the bureau, it is clear that if the problem is not found out, then the Airbus 320 will not be missed.

If the investigation cycle is stretched too long, those airlines whose main model is the Airbus 320 fleet may not be able to survive.If the plane can't fly, then it's a pure money-losing product, and it's not a loss.

Airline companies are not the type of companies with sufficient capital flow. If they do not get in, the airlines with slightly weaker strength may not be able to continue in one breath, and they will go bankrupt directly.

Although the bureau promised to take the lead in filing a compensation claim against Airbus, such matters usually take a long time, and it is unknown whether the airline can delay it.

Yi Feng also knew that Deng Wenjia was under a lot of pressure, so he comforted him: "Fortunately, our National University Airlines has no losses this time, and we can always help you through the difficulties."

Speaking of this matter, Deng Wenjia raised his eyebrows: "I heard that Muhua Airlines has suffered a lot this time."

"That's true." Mentioning this, Yi Feng showed a schadenfreude smile on his face: "Increasing the size of the Airbus fleet has been their basic strategy for the past two years. Unexpectedly, they shot themselves in the foot instead."

Among the three major airlines, Guoda Airlines mainly uses Boeing aircraft, and Muhua Airlines mainly uses Airbus aircraft.In fact, a long time ago, Muhua Airlines was dominated by the Boeing fleet, and the Airbus fleet came from behind in recent years.

The reason is that the business strategy of Muhua Airlines has changed!
Taking the most classic Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 as an example, the Airbus 320 is lower than the Boeing 737 in terms of the single investment in the overall purchase, but the Airbus 320 is higher than the Boeing 737 in terms of follow-up maintenance costs. The name of the Boeing 737 is not covered.

One has a large initial investment and a small follow-up investment, and the other is the opposite.It seems that there should be no difference, but there is a big way to it.

Muhua Airlines wanted to take the route of rapid expansion after Ma Cheng came up, but the company's budget is certain, so if it can buy more aircraft under the same budget, it is natural to choose Airbus.

Moreover, once the fleet size increases, more financing can be obtained to cover more subsequent costs, thus forming a virtuous circle.

Yi Feng can understand Muhua Aviation's thinking and strategy, and this strategy seems to be very good, but it doesn't mean he agrees with this development strategy.

This so-called cycle can continue to operate naturally without incident, but once it gets stuck unexpectedly.If the company does not get enough financing and Lilan, the maintenance cost of Airbus aircraft will become a huge burden for the company. It may not be impossible for the company to break the capital chain.

It is precisely based on this expansion concept that recently, in terms of the total number of aircraft, Muhua Airlines has surpassed Guoda Airlines.Of course, this is limited to the size of the fleet, and there is still a gap between the two in terms of profitability.

It is precisely because in recent years, Muhua Airlines has been more interested in Airbus aircraft, which is at a disadvantage in the allocation of Boeing's order capacity.However, China National Airlines, which still prefers Boeing, initially gained more shares.

As a result, Muhua Aviation has built high-rise buildings on the ground in the past two years, and the 9451 incident will make its buildings collapse.If the 320 aircraft, which is the main force of the Airbus fleet, is grounded, even Muhua Airlines, one of the three major airlines, will be quite uncomfortable with such a huge grounding scale.

This is why Yi Feng looks down on Ma Cheng, a thorough businessman thinking, only looking at immediate benefits, completely ignoring possible risks and desperate crazy expansion.

Yi Feng is also very curious, how uncomfortable Muhua Aviation will be after the grounding of Airbus 320 this time.

"You don't need to be anxious, there are people who are more anxious than you." Yi Feng said: "By the way, where is Xu Cang, why haven't you seen him?"

"Here it is!" Just as Yi Feng finished speaking, Xu Cang's voice came from outside the door: "Boss Yi, long time no see."

Yi Feng admired Xu Cang very much: "It's only been a few days! But, I haven't seen you for a few days, and you have done something big again."

"No, I've done so many great things, and I was rounded and flattened by Mr. Yi?" Xu Cang began to get angry.

Yi Feng could hear the meaning of Xu Cang's words, and it was clearly an insinuation that he had previously restricted Xu Cang from going back to Blue Sky Airlines.Yi Feng didn't care about this kind of verbal dispute, and said casually: "Whatever you say, anyway, you can't go back to Blue Sky Airlines, it's not suitable for you there."

On this issue, Yi Feng's attitude is very firm.

"If I don't go back to Blue Sky Airlines, can you let me go?" Xu Cang said suddenly.

Today, he came to the company to participate in the bureau's routine investigation, then went to the maintenance and support department to find a document, and then stopped by Deng Wenjia's side to ask about letting him go, and see if there is a solution that bests both worlds.

Yi Feng was startled: "If you don't go back to Blue Sky Airlines, where are you going?"

"There will be a new airline company in Erhai soon, and I'm planning to go there." Xu Cang moved closer to Yi Feng, seeming to put his arms around Yi Feng's shoulders very familiarly, acting like a good brother.

"what?"

There were not one question but two questions. Not only Yi Feng, but even Deng Wenjia couldn't believe it.They are all from the civil aviation circle, but whenever a new airline company is established, they can usually get some news.

Yi Feng was very suspicious: "You are not lying to me, are you? I haven't heard of any new airline company in Erhai."

"Now that the preparations are almost done, there is only one bureau quota left." Xu Cang laughed.

"Isn't this just deceiving people?" Yi Feng snorted, "How precious is the quota of an airline company, and it's like picking something out of your pocket. Among other things, you must at least be sure that you can get a quota, otherwise It's all empty talk."

Xu Cang's eyes flickered: "Then if I can get the quota, can you let me go?"

"If it's a newly established airline company, I can let you go there. The premise is that you can give me a proof that you can get a seat."

Yi Feng refused to let Xu Cang return to Blue Sky Airlines because he was worried that the bad environment of Blue Sky Airlines would pollute Xu Cang.But generally speaking, the atmosphere of newly established airlines is good, and it is not impossible to let Xu Cang go there.

Xu Cang said with a smile: "Just now you also said that if the Airbus 320 is grounded for too long, Muhua Airlines will be very uncomfortable. And I know that Muhua Airlines has asked for an airline seat from the bureau. Its base in Jianchuan is directly upgraded to an independent airline company. Isn’t this a direction that can be carefully considered?”

Deng Wenjia still didn't understand why, but Yi Feng understood it quickly, and said in disbelief: "You want to grab Muhua Airlines' airline seat in Southwest?"

Five days later, the small pavilion in the middle of the lake in Longcheng District.

It has been five days since the plane was salvaged, and the Airbus 320 was grounded exactly two days ago.At first, many people thought that this would not be a grounding that required too much worry, but as the technicians inspected the aircraft, after five days, they really had no clue at all.

In the review of the previous maintenance records of the plane involved in the accident, the bureau personnel also found that the plane had a problem of difference in the fuel flow of the two engines.

However, this kind of problem is not uncommon on many old aircraft that have aged. Moreover, Shandong Airlines has specially conducted a parking inspection for this purpose, and the procedures are all in compliance with the standards. question.

In fact, even if there is a problem with the difference in fuel flow, the bureau personnel can't think of any internal connection between this and the engine explosion.

In addition, many aircraft parts were scattered on the seabed during the forced landing, and the progress of the investigation was stopped for a while. The so-called grounding seemed to be in the foreseeable future.

In the small pavilion, Li Rongxian looked nervously at Xu Cang, who was squinting and enjoying the sun.In the past five days alone, a dozen airlines have filed complaints with ICAO and IATA regarding the grounding of the Airbus 320, demanding compensation from Airbus, which has caused Airbus to be overwhelmed.

If it's just compensation, it's nothing, but Airbus is worried that the grounding period will continue to be extended.And as the grounding time is too long, it is easy to breed some bad rumors about Airbus, which will affect the confidence of other countries in Airbus aircraft.

It is not easy to build a reputation for an aircraft, so it shouldn't ruin the brand.

Under such a foreign affliction, Li Rongxian seemed to be in a bad mood!

"Mr. Xu, how do you think about the cooperation we mentioned before?"

Xu Cang didn't even open his eyes, and said slowly: "You mean that cooperation that just wants to rely on a woman and settle me down with a car, are you sending beggars away?"

Hearing this, Li Rongxian was not angry but happy. He was not afraid that Xu Cang would speak loudly, but he was afraid that this person would have no desires and desires, which would be difficult to deal with.

"Mr. Xu, as long as you don't accept any interviews and don't disclose 9451, especially the engine, to any bureau personnel, we will give you a satisfactory reward."

Xu Cang straightened up. He didn't intend to beat around the bush anymore, but directly stated the conditions: "There is a pharmaceutical research company in Jianchuan called Yuanye Pharmaceutical. Recently, they are very tight on research funds."

Li Rongxian immediately understood: "Mr. Xu, we will inject capital into it immediately."

"Injection?" Xu Cang sneered, "Does that mean I still need to give you shares?"

"No, no, I made a slip of the tongue." Li Rongxian quickly changed his words: "We will make a free donation in the name of Mr. Xu."

Xu Cang stood up and stretched himself. He didn't even ask Li Rongxian how much he planned to donate. Airbus wouldn't be petty about such a thing.

This time, the opportunity to follow up with the Airbus wool is just to solve the funding problem of Yuanye Pharmaceutical's research on rapamycin at one time, so as to avoid Xu Cang's worries.

In fact, from Xu Cang's personal point of view, he is more willing to let this matter ferment, so that the public will have doubts about the Airbus aircraft, which will force some vacillating people in China to make up their minds to develop a large domestic aircraft.

However, from a rational point of view, Airbus is still a giant after all. When it is alone, it is best not to confront it head-on.Take this opportunity to let Airbus bleed, and both sides retain some dignity, so that there is no room for turning around in the future.

"Sign an agreement or something?" Xu Cang suddenly turned his head and asked.

"No, no, we trust Mr. Xu's character."

However, Xu Cang smiled: "But, I don't believe you. Before tomorrow, I hope to get the news that the donation has been completed. It shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Li Rongxian was stunned for a moment, but nodded heavily: "This is no problem."

"That's fine!" Xu Cang spread his hands: "That matter is over, let's go!"

Xu Cang was very chic, but as soon as he took a step, he turned his head and looked at Li Rongxian jokingly, and asked, "You Airbus must be feeling very uncomfortable now, right?"

"Mr. Xu, what do you mean?" Li Rongxian asked in a low voice.

"If we can't find out the cause of the engine explosion, the Airbus 320 has to be grounded, isn't that uncomfortable?" Xu Cang suddenly raised a finger: "What if I could tell you the cause of the engine explosion?"

Li Rongxian's mind stopped for a moment, and then he was overjoyed: "Mr. Xu, do you know the reason for the engine explosion?"

Li Rongxian didn't even ask Xu Cang why he knew, which showed how anxious he was.

"Yes." Xu Cang nodded naturally: "Need I tell you?"

"If Mr. Xu can tell the truth, we at Airbus will be very grateful." After speaking, Li Rongxian thought of something again, and gritted his teeth: "Of course, there will still be generous rewards."

Li Rongxian clearly planned to use another 1000 million yuan to cover the news from Xu Cang's mouth.Compared with the previous hush money, if 1000 million can be used to find out the cause of the engine explosion and then lift the grounding of the Airbus 320, then Li Rongxian thinks it is very cost-effective.

Although the other 1000 million budget funds have not been applied for, I think my boss is definitely willing to do it when he hears about such a deal.However, if this matter can be done, we need to verify the authenticity of Xu Cang's news. Xu Cang can't just say it casually and offer a full 1000 million, right?
However, Xu Cang shook his head this time: "You mean the conditions this time are the same as last time?"

Now it was Li Rongxian's turn to be stunned, he nodded blankly: "That's right, Mr. Xu is not satisfied with the reward of 1000 million?"

"It turned out to be 1000 million. The Airbus headquarters is really rich." Xu Cang said with a light smile, "However, the reason for the engine explosion is...another price!"

PS—Guess why the engine exploded?Hint, this actually happened.

My bottleneck is not the creation bottleneck but the subscription bottleneck, it is really tormented!