Xia Yu's first destination was Cole, Germany, which is also the location of Lufthansa's headquarters.
Due to the grounding of a large number of flights, they are now in a very difficult situation. The 14 Airbus A380s that they operated at their peak have become a huge burden for the company, and they want to sell 6 of them to Airbus at a low price.
Who would have thought that Airbus would cancel all of its remaining 80-plus orders, and it would be even less likely that they would take over this batch of old A380s.
Lufthansa had no choice but to retire all six of its superjumbo jets, and the remaining eight were mostly mothballed, to be put back into operation once the aviation industry recovers.
The fate of retired A380s is basically to be dismantled into parts for use by A380s still in operation. In the future, it will be difficult for Airbus to make money from maintenance and repair.
This is probably the consequence of failing to see future development trends and forcing a project on just to gamble with Boeing!
Four engines on military aircraft provide redundancy, but four engines on civilian airliners today would be counterproductive. Efficient and economical twin-engine wide-body aircraft represent the future.
However, of the more than 200 A380s already delivered, at least half will continue to be put into operation once the situation improves. Xia Yu came here this time to see if there are any opportunities to snag one.
What if he buys all six A380s if the price is low enough?
Those in good condition will be sealed and stored first, while those in poor condition will be dismantled directly, and the dismantled parts will be provided to large airlines like Tuhao Airlines in the future.
However, this was not Xia Yu's main focus; he was eyeing Lufthansa's 17 Airbus A340s that were scheduled to be retired.
This is also a rather awkward four-engine product for Airbus. The project laid the foundation for the A380, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and the market will vote with its feet.
However, the A340 has one special feature: its engine is the same as that of the A330. In other words, you can think of it as a stretched version of the A330. The two aircraft share more than 80% of their parts.
It's worth noting that the A330 has sold over 1,600 units, making it Airbus's second most outstanding aircraft after the A320 series.
If Xia Yu can acquire all 17 A340s at a relatively low price, he can sell the dismantled parts needed for at least 51 A330s.
Of course, there is also demand for complete systems.
This four-engine passenger plane wasn't produced in large numbers, but it had a few special customers.
For example, there's a certain Persian country that's constantly under sanctions, has plenty of oil at home, and doesn't need to consider the economics of passenger planes at all; its only worry is not having enough planes.
In order to buy passenger planes, they particularly like to use small countries as "gloves" to get them to buy the planes, then park them at third-party airports with full fuel and the engines still running.
While the crew members were getting off the plane for a coffee, oh dear, my plane was taken away by secret agents!
Despite such a serious accident, next month's salary will not only be paid in full, but there will even be an extra bonus.
Afterwards, Lao Mei said that he had been tricked, but he could control everything except the secret agents who "hijacked" the plane.
However, there are factions within this country, so even if Jihuo Defense wanted to do this business, they couldn't do it themselves. In the vast country of Afica, there are plenty of small countries that want to earn a service fee.
Sure enough, apart from the a380, other less successful products also found their way out. If they weren't suitable for this country, another country would treasure them and be eager to have them.
"Mr. Sherlock, I am Lufthansa CEO Carsten. Welcome to Corrae."
Perhaps because of the mask, the CEO's French-German accent was heavy and muffled.
“Mr. Carsten, let’s speak German. My wife is German.”
Xia Yu immediately started building relationships.
"That's great. French is really difficult to pronounce. I could get the highest score in written tests when I was in school, but I could only barely pass the oral tests."
Karsten switched back to German.
"It's actually not so bad once you get used to it. Let's take a look at the airplane first."
Xia Yu suggested.
His time is very limited; he can only stay in Europe for a maximum of one week, so finalizing the Lufthansa deal cannot take more than four days.
"This way, please!"
Carsten also appreciates this decisive approach, but at the same time hopes that the other party won't push the price down too much.
They have suffered losses to the point where they need government funding to weather the storm, and they desperately need to reduce the burden on their fleet to recover funds.
Southwest Airlines in the United States, for example, decisively sold 20 Boeing 737s and 737 Max aircraft, recovering $800 million in cash. They then used the money to lease the aircraft they sold, successfully resolving the crisis.
But their planes are new and can still fetch a price. Their Airbus A340s are just over twenty years old, and without this incident, the unit price would only be a little over ten million euros.
Given the current overall decline in the aviation industry, a second-hand A340 might not cost much more than a second-hand F-16C/D, especially since the buyer is a major customer with the capacity to purchase all 17 aircraft.
Xia Yu boarded the A340-300 passenger plane painted with the words "Lufthansa" and was checking its condition using the system.
Lufthansa also has a dozen or so A340-600s manufactured after the turn of the millennium, which are definitely in newer condition, but are also more expensive.
Xia Yu chatted with the other party and it seemed that he planned to use it for 28 years before retiring.
If he can secure these 17 A340-300s, he will also have priority in purchasing the future A340-600s.
This is a good thing for Xia Yu. By adopting the positioning of concentrated fire defense equipment, the arcade A320 series is like the BTR-82S that their company sells to the outside world, simply for the purpose of increasing sales volume.
The A330 and A340 are the Weasel S3 and S30, which may not sell many units, but have a higher profit margin per unit.
"Your company didn't intend to convert them into cargo planes."
After inspecting several A340-300s, Xia Yu asked Carsten about this issue.
In the civil aviation industry, many passenger planes that have reached 20 years of age are converted into cargo planes and operated for another 10 years.
"If it weren't for this black swan (or gray rhino) event, we might have tried this approach. Now, the most important thing is to survive."
Carsten said without much thought.
"Jihuo Air Transport Company is doing quite well, with three An-124s flying around the world non-stop recently."
During the time spent fighting the Ebola virus, Xia Yu also brought the Ruslan zombie plane from Libya to airworthiness and added it to the company's An-124 fleet.
The people of Wukelan who own An-225 aircraft have better business, since time is life and the other party can transport more supplies.
The museum's business has temporarily stalled, but it has unexpectedly boosted the business of the air transport company.
He used to feel the pinch when paying hundreds of thousands of euros per hour for a single machine, but now that he's receiving the money, he's incredibly happy.
"We can't compare to you. You are a specialized transportation company, while Lufthansa's main business is passenger transport."
Old Ka quickly waved his hand and said.
Their cargo business is just a sideline; converting passenger planes to cargo planes on short notice is also very troublesome, as it's not easy to load and unload cargo in either the cargo hold or the passenger cabin.
You can throw away a suitcase, but try throwing away pre-packed standard items.
In two days, Xia Yu inspected all 17 A340-300s. It could be said that he knew more about the condition of these aircraft than Lufthansa did.
“The 13 aircraft are relatively old and have poor economic performance, meaning they are the kind that will lose money as soon as they are put into operation. I can only offer them a price of 8 million euros per unit.”
Finally, they got to the price, and Xia Yu immediately cut a corner. "Mr. Sherlock, this price is far too low. Even if it were dismantled directly, the profit would be over 10 million euros."
Carsten said with some difficulty.
An airplane that cost 238 million yuan back then can only fetch a fraction of that price when sold secondhand today.
This is much higher than the depreciation rate of fighter jets, but a used Fighting Falcon has only flown five or six thousand hours, while a used A340 starts at fifty or sixty thousand.
"Yes, but dismantling also incurs costs. I've invested a lot of money in the factory and labor; we can't afford to lose money."
Xia Yu shrugged, indicating that they were also facing difficulties.
"How about this: we'll reduce the price of these 13 aircraft to 8.5 million, and the 4 in good condition will be 10 million."
He then offered a new price.
The total price for 17 Airbus A340-300s is 150.5 million euros, which is less than 10 million euros less than Lufthansa's target price of 160 million euros for a package deal.
"Then there are those six Airbus A380s. If your company is willing to sell them, we are willing to take them all."
As Xia Yu spoke, he looked out the window. There were only three A380s there; the remaining three were still in France, but that didn't affect their transaction.
The main characters in the super-rich stories all have an Airbus A380 or a Boeing 747. As a super-rich person in the PMC world, one Il-76MF is enough for him.
The purchase of these four-engine wide-body passenger planes is really just for refurbishment and resale or dismantling and reselling spare parts.
Back then, an A380 cost $440 million per aircraft. What price could Lufthansa possibly offer for a package deal of six?
“We think 200 million euros is a reasonable figure for six A380s.”
"It's too expensive. There are many airlines selling A380s. We don't just have Lufthansa as an option. There's a package order for five aircraft for only $150 million. Their average age is less than 10 years and their flight hours are below average."
Xia Yu began to lower the price.
Old Ka knew which five aircraft he was referring to; their six old A380s were simply no match for the competition.
After operating for so many years, 200 million euros is indeed too expensive.
"How about we concede to €149.5 million, bringing the total price of the 23 aircraft (17 + 6) to €300 million?"
That evening, an emergency meeting was convened with senior management, and on the morning of the third day, Carsten finally offered Xia Yu a satisfactory price.
A total of 23 four-engine aircraft can fill almost half of the civil aviation area of the aircraft graveyard, so his 300 million yuan investment is not a loss.
"Okay, let's sign the contract today."
Xia Yu agreed, saying that his legal team was on standby and, after the total price was finalized, they discussed the details of the terms with Lufthansa's legal department. By the afternoon, they had produced a contract that satisfied both parties.
After signing his name in the designated area and paying a €90 million advance payment, the four A340-300s in good condition will fly to Mari within three days, before Xia Yu returns home.
His staff will store the four aircraft for future preparation and sale.
Xia Yu deals in both complete machines and individual parts, but his focus is on disassembled parts that are impossible to trace and statistically analyze once disassembled.
By grinding off the serial number, he could easily sell three or even five of them.
An unexpected event accelerated Xia Yu's efficiency in stockpiling disassembled parts, and effectively reduced procurement costs.
What's this called again?
Yes, if the east is dark, the west is bright; as the setting sun fades, I bask in my sorrow...
Having made a great haul, Xia Yu boarded the Sherlock, while Lao Qian took off in his plane, heading towards Northern Europe.
Soon, they landed in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Kohler the Wolverine is half Norwegian. Apart from that, Xia Yu's impression of the place is that it took the German army two months to take Norway during World War II, unlike a certain place that fell in 4 hours.
This small European country once had 64 F-16A/B fighters in its air force. After joining the F-35 program, it ordered 52 more F-35s from the US in 2013.
Since the first batch of F-35As achieved combat capability in 2019, the Norwegian Air Force has begun to retire a large number of older F-16AM/BM fighter jets, even though they were mid-life upgrades.
It can only be said that they have money to burn, and of course, these retired and idle old warplanes have attracted the attention of many countries.
According to Xia Yu's understanding, Romagna in Eastern Europe is eager to acquire a batch of fighter jets to replace their Soviet-era aircraft with NATO-equipped ones.
But there are over 70 in total! They say they'll all be returned by 2022, so if you act fast, everyone can buy one.
If you can't buy them, you can still get them from other countries. It's not just Norway that has F-16s; Denmark and the Netherlands also bought quite a few back then.
The former coachman had a grudge against Mao Zedong, and given the opportunity, he might donate fighter jets instead of coins.
That's how modern society works: if a small country is determined, it can cause trouble for a large country even if it doesn't participate in the war.
In Xia Yu's eyes, these old F-16AM/BMs were only worth converting into unmanned target drones for single-seat configurations and civilian use for two-seat configurations.
Without upgrading avionics, there is no combat capability whatsoever.
To upgrade to a respectable F-16V standard, it would require replacing the radar with an AN/APG-83 active phased array radar, upgrading the mission computer, and adding a sniper pod...
This whole setup would cost at least forty to fifty million US dollars, enough to buy five or six F-16AM/BM airframes. So why not just use F-16C/D airframes for the upgrade?
As for why Xia Yu used the F-16AM/BM when modifying the Red Fighting Falcon, it's because he has a system that can maintain the aircraft, which others don't.
Nowadays, if maintenance is needed, only F-16C/D airframes will be serviced; older batches of Fighting Falcons have only two options.
After a short stay in the capital, the Sherlock took off again, heading to Bode Air Base, 850 kilometers from Oslo.
Also traveling with them was a royal plane. Norway still retains the monarchy, while most members of European royal families are required to serve in the military.
Being able to drive is just the minimum requirement; ideally, you should also be able to fly helicopters or fighter jets.
Prince Harry, who often amassed gold coins by defeating his father, once shot down 25 Tatas while piloting an Apache helicopter in the U.S. Army. His uncle Andrew also piloted the Aquaman during the Isles of Marshall.
Norway doesn't fight wars; the royal family members are mostly just experiencing it.
For example, Princess Ingrid Lysander, who is traveling with Xia Yu this time, will be going to Bode Air Force Base to experience the F-16BM.
If you really want to know why I didn't try the F-35, it's probably because all three models of the F-35 are single-seat aircraft!
Xia Yu can experience the F-15D, F/A-18D, and Rafale-B through connections, but he really can't experience the F-15D or the Raptor, even though he can operate them right away.
Less than an hour later, the Sherlock landed on the runway at Bodle Air Force Base and met the princess, who had just turned 16.
Honestly, he looks like he's 26 years old.
After exchanging a few words with the other party, Xia Yu suggested that he go to the hangar where the Fighting Falcon was stored to take a look.
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