Return to 2000: Captain of the Great Powers

In the first class cabin of British Airways Flight 531, Xu Cang had accumulated a lot of sleepiness before.When he got on the plane, he fell asleep before it even took off. When he woke up, he looked at his watch. The plane had been flying for more than two hours.

Xu Cang couldn't cry out loud. After so much deliberation ahead, why did he only sleep for two hours in the end, and there are still eight or nine hours left, so how can he still sleep?
After looking around, I found that most of the first-class passengers were different from me. They were either reading magazines, reading books, or chatting with each other.Beside Xu Cang, the marketing director of Kingfisher Airlines was flipping through the documents. This person is a workaholic. When Xu Cang boarded the plane with him, he didn't bring anything else, basically just a bunch of documents.

Originally, Xu Cang planned to arrange the matter of Kingfisher Airlines for Bao Yuan when he came this time, but things turned out to be a little different from what Xu Cang thought.Previously, Xu Cang planned to allocate some of Kingfisher Airlines' aircraft to Spring and Summer Airlines, so as to rationalize the deployment of transport capacity.

However, with the issuance of the euro, the entire European market is showing a scene of prosperity.At the beginning of its issuance, the euro showed its extremely strong position, even overshadowing the US dollar.

With such a strong current state of prosperity and good expectations for the future, the civil aviation market in Europe has skyrocketed.Somewhat similar to Spring and Summer Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines has a lower positioning than most mainstream airlines in Europe.Therefore, it may not be so intuitive in terms of profit growth, but in terms of passenger traffic and cargo volume growth, Kingfisher Airlines is already showing explosive trends.

Kingfisher Airlines, which had excess capacity before, could instantly digest the previous exuberant capacity like a burden. If Xu Cang still followed the previous decision to transfer about ten 737s back from Kingfisher Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines would be somewhat Not enough capacity.

To be honest, Xu Cang did not expect this kind of reversal.

Anyway, he is doing civil aviation.He is relatively familiar with some historical events in civil aviation, just like he knows the subsequent fate of Kingfisher Airlines, but he does not know that the opportunity to reverse everything comes from the issuance of the euro.

Originally, he thought that Kingfisher Airlines was recovering slowly, but he didn't expect that this wave of euros would directly fill Kingfisher Airlines with blood, and his own planes were not enough.If you do this, Xu Cang's previous arrangement will be disrupted.

The agreement on the transfer of ownership was signed, and it did not take time.The key is how to coordinate the capacity relationship between Spring Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines in the future, which is still unclear for a while.

There are a lot of things involved, Xu Cang can't stay in the UK all the time, so he simply brought back the marketing director of Kingfisher Airlines and asked him to talk to Lu Xiaoxiao himself.

Although Lu Xiaoxiao is in charge of finance, Shi Lingling is the manager of the marketing department.However, Shi Lingling's ability to be the marketing manager depends on her extensive network, and Lu Xiaoxiao is better at business planning.

Perhaps because of the recent market fluctuations, the marketing director of Kingfisher Airlines probably also smoked from the CPU, as if there were endless information, until he found Xu Cang who had woken up out of the corner of his eye.

"Boss, did I disturb you?" The marketing director put down his work in front of his new boss: "Need me to dim the reading light?"

The seats of the two are next to each other, even though there is a large gap between the first-class seats, the light from the seats next to them will still leak to Xu Cang's side.

Xu Cang straightened his body: "No need."

The marketing director nodded, then he was speechless, and started to look at the information again.

He seemed to respect Xu Cang, but not much.

Xu Cang didn't care much about these things, so he yawned, turned his head to glance at what the marketing director was looking at, and couldn't understand it at all, so he immediately looked away, and asked casually: "Have you figured it out, how many planes can we draw out? "

The marketing director stopped immediately, and looked at Xu Cang with some surprise: "Boss, we can't get any planes. On the contrary, we need more planes. Since the release of the Euro in less than a week, the sales of air tickets have gone up. It has exceeded the whole month of last month, and it is still rising. According to our estimates, compared with last month, air ticket sales will increase by more than [-]% this month, which is the most conservative estimate. My opinion is , at least seven hundred percent."

Xu Cang's face was extremely exciting. At this moment, he didn't know whether to be happy or unhappy.

Fortunately, the explosive growth of Kingfisher Airlines will bring huge profits to the owner, Xu Cang.But the problem is, his previous plans were disrupted.

Originally, he also planned to use the capacity transferred from Kingfisher Airlines to increase the market share of Spring Airlines in domestic routes.

Xu Cang scratched his head: "Well, show me the financial statements of this month and last month."

Just now Xu Cang took a glance and seemed to see the financial statement.

The marketing director didn't intend to hide it either, but he reminded: "There are only less than two weeks this month."

"I know, give it to me."

"En." The marketing director took out two pages from a large pile of documents and gave them to Xu Cang, and pointed out which one was from last month and which one was from this month, lest Xu Cang might not understand.

Xu Cang's spoken language is so-so, but his vocabulary is quite powerful, and he can basically understand everything.

However, looking at the financial statement in this way, Xu Cang only felt a twitch in the corner of his eyes.

Last month, Kingfisher Airlines was still losing money all the way. Just a week after the issuance of the euro, it turned losses into profits this month.The marketing director was right. The European market was overheated, and Kingfisher Airlines was sitting up in shock from a dying illness.In this month's financial statement, the marketing department's forecast for the later period is also attached, and the curve is as steep as a cliff.

According to the forecast of the marketing department, the profit of Kingfisher Airlines this month will be more than ten times that of Spring and Summer Airlines.This is still the first year of turning losses into profits, wouldn't it be more exaggerated in the future?

Xu Cang just felt a little speechless, the little wealth he had worked so hard to save was really not worth mentioning in front of European airlines.Therefore, the European and American markets are the most successful and mature civil aviation markets in the world, with a large scale and high profits.

Spring and Summer Airlines are hard-earned money.

From this point of view, it is better not to move Kingfisher Airlines' fleet.In today's circumstances, it is more profitable to keep the aircraft in Europe.

Xu Cang returned the financial statement to the marketing director: "How big is the gap in your fleet?"

"If possible, it would be more appropriate to buy about [-] aircraft this year." The marketing director said: "The prospect of the European market is very good now, and a large amount of capital is pouring in. I feel that financing is not difficult. Compared with buying or leasing As for the financing of aircraft, I am more worried about the production capacity of Boeing or Airbus. Not only our performance has increased significantly, but other European airlines will also benefit. They must also expand their market size. If they are crowded together, The aircraft production capacity of Boeing and Airbus may not be able to support it."

Production of extremely sophisticated industrial products such as large airliners is not increased at will.The European market is so overheated that Boeing and Airbus may not be able to sell their planes.

In any case, in recent years, Boeing and Airbus, and even the next-level regional airliner aircraft manufacturers have been able to take a small share of the pie.

For some reason, Xu Cang suddenly thought of Bombardier at this moment.In his memory, Bombardier should have killed himself, even though they have a lot of excellent aircraft technology.

I am afraid that the European market will suddenly become stronger, which will benefit the entire passenger aircraft market from the main line to the branch line, and Bombardier will also be relieved.If this is the case, then the impact on Xu Cang is still relatively large.

The problem of not being able to transfer planes from Kingfisher Airlines can be big or small, but generally it can be dealt with.

But Xu Cang couldn't accept Bombardier eating meat.

Bombardier is alive, so how can he attack Bombardier?

Seeing that Xu Cang remained silent, the marketing director asked cautiously: "Boss, is there any problem with the fifteen planes? In terms of funds, we should be able to solve it alone, or do you have another opinion on the plan to introduce the planes? "

Xu Cang was simply obsessed with Bombardier. When he heard the marketing director's words, he woke up suddenly: "It's okay, fifteen."

Before Xu Cang finished speaking, he suddenly felt the floor tremble.Xu Cang didn't pay much attention at first, thinking that the plane encountered continuous air turbulence.

However, Xu Cang soon felt something unusual.The vibration amplitude of the floor or the entire aircraft is too small, the amplitude is not large, but the frequency is very high, and it is very regular.

This is not quite like the movement caused by encountering air currents.

The marketing director also noticed something strange, and looked down at the coffee cup on the corner of the table.In the fine vibration, the surface of the coffee cup forms a circle of concentric ripples.

"There is a problem." The marketing director first looked at Xu Cang. As far as he knew, this new boss, who was less than thirty years old, was not as good at flying as ordinary people.

Xu Cang looked around, but found nothing else, only the high-frequency vibration of the plane.

"Boss, what's going on?"

"How do I know what's going on? I'm not in the cockpit." Xu Cang was a little annoyed. This dangerous thing like flying the Trent 1000 ended safely. Why did something go wrong on the way back?
Obviously, not everyone has Xu Cang's insight.At least as far as he could see, the first-class flight attendant and the cabin manager in the front cabin were chatting like nothing happened, and they didn't think there was any problem with the plane at all.

Perhaps, the two cabin managers just took this kind of aircraft vibration as the cause of the airflow and didn't care.

"Ok?"

Xu Cang suddenly felt something in his heart, moved his nostrils, and sniffed a few times: "Rust?"

The word Xu Cang used Chinese, and the marketing director didn't understand: "What?"

"I mean rust." Xu Cang switched to English, frowned, and looked up at the air outlet above: "Didn't you smell any strange smell?"

"Strange smell?" The marketing director was taken aback for a moment, and then he inhaled vigorously twice: "Is there any? Strange smell, the rust smell you said?"

"Maybe I'm thinking too much." Xu Cang leaned back on the lumbar pillow, perhaps because of all the previous experiences, he was a little nervous.

The cruising altitude of the Boeing 777 is relatively high, which is close to the stratosphere.There is no obvious weather activity here, perhaps this kind of small-amplitude, high-frequency airflow phenomenon is more common.

Xu Cang knew how to fly heavy aircraft in his previous life, but he didn't have much experience. He flew more business jets and single-aisle airliners.This kind of airflow activity in the stratosphere is not well known to Xu Cang.

"Are you okay?" The marketing director saw that Xu Cang had no further action, and looked around. He vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell. After all, he was not a professional, so he could only look at Xu Cang. Reaction.

It can only be said that the psychological quality of this marketing director is not ordinary, or that he trusts Xu Cang too much. Seeing that Xu Cang didn't express it, he continued to work with peace of mind.

Xu Cang leaned back on the back of the sofa, his eyes were slightly closed, but his lips were tightly pressed together, not as if he was relaxing.

The marketing director took a look at Xu Cang, and saw that he closed his eyes and rested his mind, and shrugged his shoulders. It seemed that everything had calmed down and returned to normal.

He didn't think about the vibration of the plane anymore, but focused all his attention on his work.Suddenly, as if he had discovered something, he took out a gold pen from the collar pocket of his jacket, and immediately wanted to mark something on the document.

However, the moment his pen tip touched the paper, time seemed to freeze at this moment.

"The smell of rust." The marketing director suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction of the air outlet: "It came out from there."

"No!" The tip of the marketing director's gold pen was pressed against the paper, and the ink from the tip of the pen even slightly leaked out because of unconscious excessive force: "There is still movement!"

He was distracted by the conversation with Xu Cang just now.Not long ago, he gathered all his mind and wanted to return to work. In addition, Xu Cang stopped talking, and he immediately realized that there seemed to be abnormalities other than the vibration of the plane.

Xu Cang opened his eyes suddenly: "It's a voice!"

It's like the sound produced by the friction of a wire on something!

Xu Cang stood up abruptly, and the movement directly alarmed the first-class flight attendants and the cabin manager who were chatting in the front cabin work room.

Since the plane was already in the normal cruising phase at this moment, the cabin manager did not immediately ask Xu Cang to return to his seat, but asked, "Sir, is there anything I can help you with?"

Xu Cang didn't speak immediately, but left his seat directly and headed back to the economy class.

"Huh?" The cabin manager seemed to notice something different about Xu Cang, unbuckled his seat belt, stood up and chased after Xu Cang.

After Xu Cang left his seat, he went straight to the economy class. In the middle of the plane, he approached the porthole and looked out under the puzzled eyes of the passengers.

At this moment, it was already late, and it was pitch black outside. Except for the very faint moonlight and starlight, Xu Cang should have been able to see nothing, but in fact, Xu Cang could actually see the flickering light at the engine air intake, It was as if there were fireflies hiding in the engine.

"Huh, the engine is glowing?" The passenger sitting on the window seat also looked outside because of Xu Cang, and immediately noticed the condition of the engine.

"You don't understand now." The person walking beside him didn't take it seriously: "There is a combustion chamber in the engine, it may be the flame leaking from the combustion."

The passenger by the window was stunned: "Is that so?"

The companions nodded firmly: "That must be."

Xu Cang didn't speak, he left from the porthole.

There is indeed a combustion chamber in the engine, and there is indeed a flame in the combustion, but it is absolutely impossible to leak it.If it leaks out, the engine is a defective product, and it may not be suspended on this Boeing 777.

"No cumulus clouds, no dust and fog." Xu Cang whispered to himself: "It's not St. Elmo's fire."

St. Elmo's fire generally only occurs in ice crystal conditions or when volcanic ash rubs against the protruding part of the fuselage at high speed and ionizes.He could see the stars and the moon very clearly just now, which means that the sky around the plane is clear, neither in clouds nor in any dust particles, which means there are no conditions for St. Elmo's fire to occur.

Not St. Elmo's Fire, what is that?
Xu Cang didn't understand the current situation, the cabin manager finally caught up.

"Sir, do you need any help? You can tell me."

The cabin manager saw that Xu Cang did not act aggressively, so his tone was quite polite.She saw Xu Cang leaning against the porthole looking out just now, as if she had thought of something, she leaned closer to Xu Cang and said in a low voice, "Sir, there are vacant seats by the window in the first class cabin. If you need, you can change seats."

Obviously, the cabin manager thought that Xu Cang simply wanted to see the night view.It's just that, looking at the economy class, the behavior is a little weird.

However, there are many strange people in the world, and their personal ideas are different.As long as Xu Cang doesn't do anything out of the ordinary, the cabin manager won't bother.

"Is there anything I need help with?" Xu Cang took a deep breath, returned to the aisle, turned sideways and looked at the cabin manager: "Please contact the cockpit for me, I think they need my help."

The cabin manager was startled: "Sir, do you want to talk to the cockpit?"

"No!" Xu Cang shook his head, he raised his finger and pointed to the door of the cockpit in front: "I want to go in."