Chapter 149 That’s another price!
Li Rongxian stopped at the entrance of Longcheng Community, wondering whether to go in. After lingering at the entrance for a long time, the long-awaited call finally came. Li Rongxian looked at his phone, breathed a sigh of relief, and finally answered it.
"Lee, have you gone to find Xu Cang?" As soon as the call was connected, the voice of Leo, the plenipotentiary representative of Airbus, came from the receiver, and his tone sounded very anxious.
Li Rongxian expressed enough respect for the senior executives of the headquarters. He also continued to receive clear instructions that dealing with Xu Cang solely depends on his own decision. Li Rongxian really couldn't bear it.
"I have talked to him once and asked him not to disclose relevant information, but he doesn't seem to care." Li Rongxian's mind was still flashing back to that moment in the ward. He really couldn't understand why there were men in the world who didn't like beautiful women. It was really strange.
"CAAC is preparing to suspend the Airbus 320's airworthiness certificate and type approval. The matter is quite serious and we must not take it lightly this time." The white man Leo spoke Chinese and if you didn't listen carefully, you might not be able to tell that he was a foreigner. He had no problem communicating with Li Rongxian in Chinese.
"Even the type approval certificate has been revoked, so won't the export of the aircraft be affected?" Li Rongxian started to panic when he heard what his boss said. He thought that CAAC was really ruthless and directly suspended two of the three certificates of the aircraft.
Leo gnashed his teeth and said, "CAAC's grounding of the 320 model is unstoppable. After the plane is salvaged, we can only try our best to cooperate and find out the cause. I don't know much about Xu Cang. It seems that he mentioned that he heard the sound of the transmission shaft breaking. Could he have heard it wrong? Is this person reliable?"
"Although he is only in his twenties, he is very capable. No, among all the pilots I have ever seen, there is no one more exaggerated than him. He said he heard the sound of the transmission shaft breaking, and I think he is more than 70% credible." Li Rongxian added: "By the way, he will also participate in the high-altitude engine extreme test flight of the Boeing 777 in the near future."
As an Airbus executive, Leo obviously knows some inside information about Boeing: "Is he the one who will partner with Ye Xian?"
"That's right!" Li Rongxian confirmed, "However, he should only participate in the third test at Daocheng Airport."
"Airport testing at high altitudes is the most difficult. This is normal." There was a clear silence on the other end of the phone for a moment. After a while, a voice came out again: "Now the headquarters has only one request for you. Tell him not to accept any interviews and not to talk about the 9451 incident with anyone other than CAAC, especially the broken engine drive shaft."
Li Rongxian looked up at the four big characters of Longcheng Community and was unsure: "But I feel like he is a stubborn person."
"That means you didn't give enough." Leo said immediately: "Go back and make a good plan. I will let the public relations department at the headquarters contact you directly. The budget is 10 million. I don't believe that 10 million can't shut him up."
"Ten million!?" Even Li Rongxian was a little frightened. Even in the future with inflation, ten million is not a small amount, let alone two thousand years. Li Rongxian couldn't help but question: "Is it necessary to have so much?"
At this time, Leo's courage as a senior executive of the headquarters was reflected: "Lee, is 10 million a lot? As long as we sell a plane, we can get several 10 million. But now this market, which will have a scale of thousands of planes in the future, has been severely impacted. Do you still care about 10 million? As long as we can ensure that this incident does not go wrong, there will be plenty of opportunities to double the money from them in the future."
Leo's meaning is very simple. Don't care about those petty gains. The first priority is to settle this matter and prevent any possibility of public opinion fermenting.
Li Rongxian actually understood this truth, but the hush money of tens of millions was too cheap for Xu Cang, and he still felt a little unhappy. However, since his boss had said so, he naturally would not have any additional opinions and just obeyed.
After hanging up the phone, Li Rongxian did not go into the community. It can be seen that Airbus headquarters is very concerned about making Xu Cang shut up, so it is better to wait for the headquarters public relations to contact him and discuss the response strategy.
…
In the office of the manager of the safety and supervision department of Qizhou Shan Airlines, Yi Feng, the head of the strategic department of Guoda Airlines, was explaining something to Deng Wenjia quite helplessly, while Deng Wenjia had an unhappy look on his face and did not seem to give face to his friend.
"The grounding of the Airbus 320 was really unexpected, and we at the National University certainly didn't want it to happen." Yi Feng smiled bitterly and said, "We will compensate your company for the related losses during the grounding period."
Yi Feng, a senior executive of Guoda Airlines, came to Shandong Airlines specifically to discuss the grounding of the Airbus 320. Although no official document has been issued yet, it is a done deal. The authority has also informed airlines with Airbus 320 fleets in advance so that they can prepare earlier.
The loss of China National Airlines in this Airbus 320 grounding incident is still acceptable, because they mainly operate Boeing models and do not have many Airbus aircraft. The majority of Airbus models are of the 330 series. The Airbus 320s were basically forced onto Shandong Airlines when the company optimized its fleet not long ago.
This resulted in almost all the losses that should have been borne by Guoda Airlines being passed on to Shandong Airlines. Shandong Airlines had originally spent a lot of manpower and resources to build an Airbus system for itself in order to receive the Airbus 320 aircraft that Guoda Airlines had forced upon it. As a result, the money was spent, and when it was waiting to make money, the Airbus 320 was grounded, which was a huge loss.
It was not fair to force the plane on Shandong Airlines before, and now Shandong Airlines has taken another swipe for itself. Even if Guoda Airlines is thick-skinned, it can't hold it back. Therefore, after confirming that the Airbus 320 will be grounded, Guoda Airlines sent Yi Feng to negotiate the issue of compensation for the grounding.
If Shandong Airlines is forced to survive this round of flight suspension, all the assets accumulated over the past year will be lost. Although Guoda Airlines is not a good person, it still has some bottom line and is willing to help Shandong Airlines.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, are you senior members of the National Congress all smiling now? You guys have taken all the good things, and we have to bear all the blame . Just because your National Congress helped us when we were established, we have to bleed to support you?"
Yi Feng also knew that he was not in the right in this matter. In addition, he had a good personal relationship with Deng Wenjia, so his face suddenly dimmed and he blushed, which was rare. "So the higher-ups asked me to come here to discuss compensation. Don't be so rebellious. Why bother?"
"We are so damn unlucky, how dare you say that here?" Deng Wenjia's forehead was throbbing with veins. "It was just a plane accident, and now half of our maintenance department has been transferred to investigate, which has affected the flight operations of our Boeing fleet. And you have to calculate the cost of salvaging the plane. The plane has been flooded with seawater, and I don't know if it can be used in the future. You have to record all the losses for me."
In order to investigate whether there were any maintenance problems, the bureau directly took away all the maintenance personnel who had participated in the daily maintenance of 9451 in the previous half month for investigation.
Shandong Airlines' maintenance department was not big to begin with, and the front-line staff of the maintenance and support department of Shandong Airlines suddenly became nervous, and even failed to guarantee the Boeing fleet flights on time due to insufficient manpower. This made the senior management of Shandong Airlines very angry.
Needless to say, the cost of salvaging the aircraft is huge. The key point is that it is unknown whether the 9451 aircraft that sank into the sea can be used in the future.
In fact, logically speaking, except for the two engines that were completely scrapped, the rest of the plane might still be usable. But the problem is that the plane was immersed in seawater, which is salt water, and the salt in it will have an extremely adverse effect on the structure of the aircraft.
If it sank in fresh water, it could be salvaged. But if it sank in sea water, the plane would probably be completely scrapped, which would be a considerable loss.
Since NUS Airlines said it would provide compensation, it must clearly list the items that need compensation.
"Wait, wait!" Seeing that Deng Wenjia was about to ask for too much, Yi Feng quickly stopped her and said, "We'll talk about these things later. Let's talk about the matter of 9451. Has the bureau made any progress after its investigation?"
"The plane was just salvaged today, and the formal investigation has not yet begun. What can we expect?" Deng Wenjia also felt that this investigation would be very difficult. The main reason was that the No. 1 engine exploded. Although the engine fairing was wrapped, most of the engine wreckage could be preserved inside. However, after the impact of the water body during the forced landing on the seamount, too many small parts were washed into the sea, and there were many clues that could explain the engine explosion, which would bring great obstacles to the investigation of the incident.
The only thing we can pray for now is that the part that caused the engine explosion was not washed into the sea. If it was washed into the sea, the subsequent investigation would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the investigation time would be infinitely prolonged.
Actually, civil aviation incident investigations are not uncommon. This time it is mainly related to the grounding of the Airbus 320. According to the current attitude of the authorities, it is clear that if the problem is not found, the Airbus 320 will not be allowed to fly again.
If the investigation period is too long, airlines that mainly use Airbus 320 fleets may not be able to survive. If the aircraft cannot fly, it will be a pure money-loser, and the loss will not be a small one.
Airlines are not the type of company with sufficient cash flow. If they only have outflows but no inflows, airlines with slightly weaker strength may not be able to keep up the cash flow and will go bankrupt.
Although the authority has promised to take the lead in making compensation claims against Airbus, such matters usually take a long time and it is unknown whether the airlines can delay it.
Yi Feng also knew that Deng Wenjia was under a lot of pressure, so he comforted her: "Fortunately, our National Aviation didn't suffer any losses this time, so we can continue to support you through the difficult times."
Speaking of this, Deng Wenjia raised his eyebrows and said, "I heard that Muhua Airlines suffered a huge loss this time."
"That's true." When mentioning this, Yi Feng showed a gloating smile on his face: "Increasing the size of the Airbus fleet has been their basic strategy in the past two years. Unexpectedly, they shot themselves in the foot."
Among the three major airlines, Guoda Airlines mainly uses Boeing aircraft, while Muhua Airlines mainly uses Airbus aircraft. In fact, Muhua Airlines also mainly used Boeing aircraft a long time ago, and the Airbus fleet has only come from behind in recent years.
The reason is that Muhua Airlines’ business strategy has changed!
Take the most classic Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 as examples. In terms of the overall single investment in purchasing the aircraft, the Airbus 320 is lower than that of the Boeing 737, but in terms of subsequent maintenance costs, the Airbus 320 is higher than that of the Boeing 737. After all, the Boeing 737's reputation for being tough is well-deserved.
One has a large initial investment and a small subsequent investment, while the other is the opposite. It seems that there should be no difference, but there are many tricks involved.
After Ma Cheng took over, Muhua Airlines wanted to expand rapidly, but the company's budget was limited. If they could buy more planes with the same budget, they would naturally choose Airbus.
Moreover, once the fleet size increases, more financing can be obtained to cover subsequent costs, thus forming a virtuous circle.
Yi Feng can understand Muhua Airlines' ideas and strategies, and this strategy seems to be very good, but it does not mean that he agrees with this development strategy.
This so-called cycle can run continuously without any problems, but once it gets stuck, the company will not get enough financing and profits, and the maintenance cost of Airbus aircraft will become a huge burden for the company, and it is not impossible that the capital chain will be broken.
It is based on this expansion concept that in recent times, Muhua Airlines has surpassed Guoda Airlines in terms of total aircraft. Of course, this is limited to the size of the fleet. In terms of profitability, there is still some gap between the two.
It is precisely because Muhua Airlines has been more interested in Airbus aircraft in recent years that it has been at a disadvantage in the allocation of Boeing's order capacity. Guoda Airlines, which still prefers Boeing, initially obtained a larger share.
As a result, Muhua Airlines has been building a tall building for the past two years, but the 9451 incident is about to bring it down. If the 320 aircraft, which is the mainstay of the Airbus fleet, is grounded, such a huge scale of grounding will be quite uncomfortable for Muhua Airlines, which is one of the three major airlines.
This is why Yi Feng looks down on Ma Cheng. He has a complete businessman's mindset and only looks at the immediate benefits. He completely ignores possible risks and is crazy about expansion at all costs.
Yi Feng was also very curious about how difficult it would be for Muhua Airlines after the Airbus 320 was grounded.
"You don't have to be anxious. There are people who are more anxious than you." Yi Feng said, "By the way, where is Xu Cang? Why don't I see him?"
"Here!" Just as Yi Feng finished speaking, Xu Cang's voice came in 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, in these few days, you have done something big again."
"No, I've done so many great things, but I was still manipulated by you, Mr. Yi?" Xu Cang began to speak sarcastically.
Yi Feng could hear the meaning behind Xu Cang's words, which was clearly a veiled criticism of his previous restriction on Xu Cang's return to Blue Sky Airlines. Yi Feng didn't care about this kind of verbal dispute, and said casually: "Whatever you say, you can't return to Blue Sky Airlines anyway, it's not suitable for you."
On this issue, Yi Feng's attitude is very firm.
"What if I don't return to Blue Sky Airlines, will you let me go?" Xu Cang suddenly said.
Today he came to the company to participate in the routine investigation of the bureau, then went to the maintenance and support department to find a document, and then came to Deng Wenjia to ask about letting him go and see if there was a win-win solution.
Yi Feng was startled: "If you don't go back to Blue Sky Airlines, where are you going?"
"There will be a new airline in Erhai Lake soon, and I plan to go there." Xu Cang moved closer to Yi Feng, and put his arm around Yi Feng's shoulders in a familiar manner, acting like a good brother.
"ah?"
There were not one but two voices of doubt. Not only Yi Feng, but even Deng Wenjia found it unbelievable. They were all people in the civil aviation circle. Whenever a new airline was established, they would usually get some information.
Yi Feng was suspicious: "Are you kidding me ? I haven't heard of any new airlines in Erhai."
"The preparations are almost complete, except for one quota from the bureau." Xu Cang said with a smile.
"Isn't this just cheating?" Yi Feng snorted, "A quota for an airline is so precious, but you're just taking something out of your bag. Apart from anything else, you have to at least be sure that you can get a quota, otherwise everything is just empty talk."
Xu Cang's eyes flickered: "If I can get a place, can you let me go?"
"If it's a newly established airline, I can let you go. But the prerequisite is that you can give me a proof that you can definitely get a quota."
Yi Feng didn't let Xu Cang return to Blue Sky Airlines because he was worried that the poor environment of Blue Sky Airlines would pollute Xu Cang. But generally speaking, the atmosphere of newly established airlines is good, so it's not impossible to let Xu Cang go there.
Xu Cang smiled and said, "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 quota from the authority, and wants to upgrade its base in Jianchuan directly to an independent airline. Isn't this a direction that can be carefully considered?"
Deng Wenjia still didn't understand, but Yi Feng quickly understood and said incredulously: "You want to grab Muhua Airlines' quota in the southwest?"
…
Five days later, at the pavilion in the middle of the lake in Longcheng Community.
The plane has been salvaged for five days, and the Airbus 320 was grounded two days ago. Many people thought that this would not be a grounding that they needed to worry about, but as the technicians inspected the plane, five days later, they really had no clue.
While reviewing the maintenance records of the previous aircraft involved in the accident, the authority's personnel did find that there was a difference in the fuel flow of the two engines of this aircraft.
However, this kind of problem is not uncommon on many old aircrafts, and Shandong Airlines even conducted a special on-site inspection, and the procedures were in compliance with the standards. After a thorough inspection, it was found that there was no problem with the aircraft.
In fact, even if there was a problem with the difference in fuel flow, the authorities could not think of any internal connection between it and the engine explosion.
In addition, many aircraft parts were scattered on the seabed during the forced landing, and the investigation progress was once stopped. The so-called suspension of flights seemed to be a long way off.
In the small pavilion, Li Rongxian looked at Xu Cang, who was squinting his eyes and enjoying the sun, with a little trepidation. In just five days, twelve airlines had filed complaints with ICAO and IATA regarding the grounding of the Airbus 320, demanding compensation from Airbus, which had caused Airbus to be extremely anxious.
If it is just compensation, it is not a big deal, but Airbus is worried that the grounding period will continue to extend. As the grounding period is too long, it is easy to breed some bad rumors about Airbus, which will affect other countries' confidence in Airbus aircraft.
It is not easy to build a good reputation for an aircraft, but we must not let it ruin our reputation.
Faced with such external troubles, Li Rongxian doesn't look too well!
"Mr. Xu, what do you think about the cooperation we mentioned earlier?"
Xu Cang didn't even open his eyes, and said slowly: "You mean the cooperation that just wants to rely on a woman and a car to deal with me, are you sending away a beggar?"
Hearing this, Li Rongxian was not angry but happy. He was not afraid that Xu Cangshi would ask for too much, but he was afraid that this man had no desires or demands, which would be a problem.
"Mr. Xu, as long as you don't accept any interviews in the near future and don't disclose any information about 9451, especially the engine, to any personnel from the bureau, we will give you a satisfactory reward."
Xu Cang straightened up. He didn't plan to beat around the bush anymore, but stated the conditions directly : "There is a pharmaceutical research company in Jianchuan called Yuanye Pharmaceutical. They are very short of research funds recently..."
Li Rongxian immediately understood: "Mr. Xu, we will inject capital into it immediately."
"Capital injection?" Xu Cang sneered, "Does that mean I still need to give you shares?"
"No, no, I made a mistake." Li Rongxian quickly changed his words: "We will donate it to him free of charge in the name of Mr. Xu."
Xu Cang stood up and stretched. He didn't even ask Li Rongxian how much he planned to donate. It seemed that Airbus would not be stingy about such a thing.
This opportunity to continue to take advantage of Airbus is just the right time to solve Yuanye Pharmaceutical's funding problem for research on rapamycin, thus relieving Xu Cang of any worries.
In fact, from Xu Cang's personal perspective, he would rather let this matter ferment so that the public would have doubts about Airbus aircraft, thereby forcing some wavering people in the country to make up their minds to develop domestically produced large aircraft.
However, from a rational point of view, Airbus is still a giant after all, and it is best not to confront it head-on when I am alone and powerless. Taking this opportunity to make Airbus bleed, both sides can retain some dignity and avoid having no room for reversal in the future.
"Do we need to sign an agreement or something?" Xu Cang suddenly turned around and asked.
"No, no, we trust Mr. Xu."
However, Xu Cang smiled and said, "But I don't believe you. I hope to get the news that the donation is completed before this time tomorrow. Should that be okay?"
Li Rongxian was stunned for a moment, but still nodded heavily: "That's no problem."
"That's fine!" Xu Cang spread his hands: "That matter is settled, let's go!"
Xu Cang was very cool, but as soon as he took a step, he turned around and looked at Li Rongxian jokingly, and asked: "You Airbus should 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 will have to be grounded. Isn't that uncomfortable?" Xu Cang suddenly raised a finger: "What if I can tell you the cause of the engine explosion?"
Li Rongxian's mind paused for a moment, 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 that, which shows how anxious he was.
"Yes." Xu Cang nodded naturally: "Do you need me to tell you?"
"If Mr. Xu can tell the truth, we at Airbus will be very grateful." After saying that, Li Rongxian thought of something and gritted his teeth: "Of course, there will still be generous rewards for you."
Li Rongxian was clearly planning to use another 10 million to get information out of Xu Cang. Compared to the hush money he paid, if he could use 10 million to find out the cause of the engine explosion and then lift the grounding of the Airbus 320, then Li Rongxian felt it was a great bargain.
Although the additional 10 million budget funds were not applied for, I think my boss would definitely be willing to do such a deal. However, in order for this to be done, we have to verify the authenticity of Xu Cang's information. It's impossible for Xu Cang to give a full 10 million just because he said so casually, right?
However, this time Xu Cang shook his head: "Do you mean that the conditions this time are the same as last time?"
Now it was Li Rongxian's turn to be stunned. He nodded blankly: "Yes, Mr. Xu, do you think the reward of 10 million is not enough?"
"It turned out to be 10 million. Airbus headquarters is indeed very wealthy." Xu Cang chuckled and said, "However, the reason for the engine explosion is... another price!"
