Chapter 416: The passage of time!
The first day of the U.S. stock market closed at 4 p.m. As expected, U.S. stocks suffered a heavy blow, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 7.1%, the S&P 500 falling 4.9%, and the Nasdaq falling 5.8%.
This is very bad news, because before the market opened, the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank had already started to cut interest rates to boost investor confidence. However, this move has not dispelled investors' doubts. Although the decline of the US stock market is not as exaggerated as that of Black Thursday, it is also extremely shocking, especially after the Internet economic bubble, under the premise of the overall financial downturn, such a decline is indeed somewhat dazzling.
Before the market opened, the highly anticipated Boeing stock unexpectedly plummeted, with the share price plunging 17 percent in a single day, which also became the largest single-day stock price drop in Boeing's history.
At first, Lance Tamir had some illusions about Qin Xin's conditions, but after seeing the performance of his own stocks, he no longer hesitated. No matter what Qin Xin or Xu Cang were thinking, the most important thing now was to stabilize the customers. If he let his own stocks plummet, it would really be a big deal.
At six o'clock that evening, after spending almost the entire day reviewing the contract, Qin Xin signed a contract with Boeing to order ten Boeing 777s. There was also a supplementary agreement, which stated that in the next six months, Xu Cang would take over the 777 orders canceled by other airlines, but the upper limit was twenty-five aircraft.
So far, other companies have canceled a total of 13 777s, which is completely certain. There are also some that are not completely confirmed, but the probability is very high.
Xu Cang will temporarily pay a deposit for ten 777s. After the number of 777 cancellations is determined in stages, Boeing will conduct a statistics and transfer the orders at one time , and then Xu Cang will pay the deposit.
In addition to the relevant contracts for 777, Qin Xin also signed a memorandum on the transfer of the 757 production line.
The reason why there is no definite contract is that there are many issues to be discussed, such as the valuation of technology transfer involved in the transfer of production lines, and the transfer of cooperation agreements involving some parts suppliers.
The transfer of the 757 production line involves many aspects and it will take some time to sort them out. In the future, both parties will send professionals to draft relevant contracts, which cannot be done in a short time.
However, Xu Cang's demand for the 757 production line is not urgent in terms of time, so it doesn't matter if it comes slowly.
On the same day, after signing the 777 agreement, Qin Xin called Xu Cang and informed him of the contract signing.
After a night's rest, Qin Xin will take seven maintenance personnel to Victorville to search for a few usable aircraft at the world-famous aircraft graveyard.
Compared to Qin Xin's somewhat pleasant journey, Japan is much more lively.
The next morning after Fujido had met with Kawasaki Akizo, a highly explosive piece of news was prominently displayed in newsstands on the streets of Japan. The content was about the inside story of ANA Flight 45.
In the article, the reporter quoted an anonymous insider as saying that Kuroda Takashi actually informed the JCAB security office about the security loopholes at Haneda Airport before the hijacking. However, the JCAB chose to ignore the report, which ultimately led to the security issues at Haneda Airport never being resolved.
In addition, the insider also revealed that ANA learned about this news afterwards, but did not make it public. Instead, it used it to exchange interests with JCAB and obtained priority selection rights on the route.
There was a photo attached in the middle of the explosive article. It was a whole piece of paper made up of countless small pieces of paper. One could vaguely make out a telephone minutes. The content was that a man named Takashi Kuroda reported on a certain date that there was a certain loophole at Haneda Airport.
Everyone in the office knew that the paper had been shredded, so it was easy to infer that the JCAB wanted to destroy the evidence.
Moreover, ANA learned about this matter later but kept it secret, using it as a bargaining chip to exchange interests.
All I can say is that these two revelations were so topical that they brought the topic to its peak on that day. Especially since hijacking has been a topic of concern to the entire nation in recent times, this added fuel to the fire, and ANA's stock price began to fall that day.
At the same time, someone dug out a rumor that Xu Cang's president Ji Chuan Yixin publicly supported Xu Cang on the day of the hearing.
At that time, Xu Cang was simply criticized by everyone. But in such an environment of public opinion, Goodspeed Airlines still chose to support Xu Cang. On the contrary, ANA clearly had a training contract with Xu Cang, but it succumbed to public opinion and unilaterally tore up the contract. In this comparison, Goodspeed Airlines' image suddenly became much taller, and ANA became a profit-seeking villain.
On the night the news broke, the ANA headquarters building was brightly lit and the entire building was filled with a solemn atmosphere.
In the president's office, Guan Yueling was listening to the report from the sales manager.
"Starting from this afternoon, our company has seen a large number of ticket refunds for domestic flights for the next seven days." The sales manager was sweating profusely. This was the first time he had encountered such a large-scale ticket refund situation since he took office, and he was quite panicked.
Guan Yueling said coldly: "How much did you withdraw?"
"Twenty-one percent." The sales manager whispered, "President, this amount of refunds is too much. It's only been less than half a day. The refund phenomenon will get worse in the future."
"One fifth." Guan Yueling's eyelids were twitching. No wonder the sales manager was so confused. In less than half a day, he had refunded one fifth of the tickets for the next week. This was indeed quite terrifying.
The sales manager saw Guan Yueling's stern expression and was too cowardly to say anything.
The sales manager is on the night shift, and his deputy is on the morning shift. The recent period is the peak of ticket sales, and there are often some temporary problems that need to be dealt with. Therefore, recently, important parts of ANA have been working in shifts around the clock so that there are always people available to make decisions.
The sales manager arrived at the company at 5 pm. He had slept all day and was fully rested. He had no idea what was in the newspaper. As a result, when he arrived at the company, the customer center's 14 landline phones were not working. The refund calls came one after another, and the operators were all talking until their throats were about to smoke.
This is just the customer center at ANA's headquarters. There are two other ANA customer centers in Sapporo and Fukuoka. The refund calls at those two centers are incessant, and the landlines are almost smoking.
At first, the sales manager thought that there was a large-scale severe weather or geological activity in some area of Japan, such as a typhoon or earthquake.
In the past, when encountering such things, round-trip flights to the relevant areas would have a large refund. This is considered a relatively normal situation. Although it is painful to refund the tickets, there is no need to panic. After all, it is a rare incident.
However, after checking, the sales manager found that there was no meteorological and geological activity in Japan that fit this situation. After summarizing the information, the sales manager discovered that the canceled tickets had nothing in common, which made the sales manager a little confused.
However, even though the sales manager was slow to realize it, he still found out what was revealed in the morning newspaper.
However, before he had time to think about it, he was called to the office by Guan Yueling.
Guan Yueling bit her lower lip and asked, "Have you heard about other companies? Do they have this kind of large-scale ticket refund phenomenon?"
"Not yet... not yet."
"Then do you have any idea about the reason for the ticket refund?" Guan Yueling continued to ask.
"President, we don't have that for the time being. However, it doesn't seem to be due to objective reasons such as weather, and JCAB hasn't issued any aviation warning information."
If it is weather or dangerous geological activities, JCAB will communicate with the airlines operating in this area in advance and convey the warnings from the Meteorological Bureau and the Earthquake Bureau. However, up to now, JCAB has been as silent as death, and it seems that those objective factors do not exist.
Guan Yueling rubbed his temples. “So the one-fifth of the refunds are for no reason at all? Even if we include the Far East Airlines period, we have never experienced such an exaggerated number of refunds.”
Far East Air is the predecessor of All Nippon Airways and was established fifty years ago when Japan slightly liberalized aviation privatization.
In other words, this is the first time in the company's more than 50-year history that a ticket has been refunded like this.
The sales manager hesitated and said, "President, although it has not been confirmed yet, I just heard some bad rumors about our company this morning. Could it be that these rumors have affected the ticket sales?"
Guan Yueling raised his head abruptly: "Impossible, how could that incident have such a great influence?"
"But..." The sales manager looked distressed. "I haven't checked other airlines yet, but I have a relative who works at Accelerate Airlines. Their ticket sales suddenly skyrocketed today. The company's top management has issued an order overnight to readjust the flight plan and personnel arrangements. It seems to be true."
ANA tickets experienced a large number of cancellations, while Air Canada's ticket sales skyrocketed. From this back and forth, it is very clear where the tickets went.
"And I looked at the categories of the canceled tickets, and they are basically all domestic routes. Except for a small number of routes from first-class airports, Jiasu Airlines can fully undertake the rest of the domestic routes." The sales manager whispered, "If the president still has questions, I can submit a complete report before noon tomorrow."
When encountering such a situation, the sales manager is prepared to work all night.
If he fails to do this well, his career will probably come to an end.
"Jiasu Airlines!" Guan Yueling said to herself in a deep voice. She had never considered Jiasu Airlines as a rival. Jiasu Airlines was just a dead tree covered with historical dust. If she didn't bother, Jiasu Airlines would fall down on its own. Who would have thought that one day, Jiasu Airlines would suck the blood of ANA.
Guan Yueling narrowed his eyes: "I don't believe that a social opinion can have such a big impact."
"President, weren't we guiding public opinion in our marketing in the domestic market? Japan Airlines is conservative and traditional, while we represent innovation and progress. Aren't we creating such a contrast in image?" The sales manager said, "It takes years or even decades to build a corporate image, but it can collapse overnight."
As soon as these words were spoken, it was like an epiphany, and Guan Yueling's face turned pale in an instant.
At the beginning, ANA changed the serious style of civil aviation and boldly used young idols in its image promotion. At the same time, it began to expand its business in the two-dimensional field. For example, the paint on ANA aircraft is much younger than that on JAL aircraft.
Intentionally or unintentionally, ANA is guiding a kind of public opinion or the inherent impression of society, that is, ANA symbolizes the power of the new era of Japanese civil aviation, while JAL is the representative of the old.
Perhaps JAL is really obsessed with its past glory and cannot extricate itself. After ANA changed its promotional method, JAL did not follow suit and still adopted its previous promotional strategy, always putting on airs. This indirectly confirms ANA's promotional point.
As the new generation of young people began to be more and more inclined to choose ANA, it was at that moment that ANA's performance in the domestic market began to change from offensive to defensive.
However, as the sales manager said, ANA spent nearly a decade shaping itself into an advanced company that breaks with tradition, but within just one day, that new force in Japan's civil aviation had begun to gradually transform itself into the image of a hateful businessman obsessed with profit .
There is no doubt that ANA is experiencing an unprecedented corporate image crisis.
Now, the one-fifth refund rate seems to be shocking enough, but if it is not handled properly later, then a one-quarter, one-third, or even higher refund rate is not impossible.
It’s the same old saying, if your reputation is bad, there’s no limit to the amount of money you can lose.
"You ask the PR... No, you contact a third-party research organization privately to conduct a large-scale investigation of this incident. In addition, write me a detailed report before noon tomorrow."
"Yes, President." The sales manager whispered, "However, judging from the current information, the leak this morning is very likely to be true. Do we need to find the anonymous source?"
"Can you find it?" Guanyue asked sharply.
"I can give it a try." The sales manager took out a newspaper, which was the one that broke the news about ANA and JCAB. "President, whether it's verifying the public's opinions, investigating the changes in ticket sales of other companies, or looking for the whistleblower, isn't the most critical issue about the exchange of interests with JCAB mentioned in the newspaper?"
The efforts mentioned above are only temporary solutions and not a fundamental solution. If ANA wants to safely get out of this image crisis, the issue of interest exchange with JCAB becomes the most crucial issue.
If this problem is completely false, then quickly dispel the rumor. If this problem exists, then find a way to cover it up first.
Therefore, before taking action, the sales manager needs to confirm the existence of this problem.
The sales manager put down the newspaper and asked cautiously, "President, what the newspaper said is... true?"
Guan Yueling bit her lip, not knowing how to answer for a moment.
At this moment, the office door was slowly pushed open, and a young and playful voice came: "Guan Yueling, why don't you tell him?"
Guan Yueling's eyes widened and he blurted out: "Xu Cang!"
