money trouble

Chapter 464

Rosalind couldn't see the direction Wu Qian was pointing from where Rosalind was sitting. After seeing it, David said to Wu Qian, "Boss, that's the Beluga transport plane, which is a transport plane developed by Airbus based on the A300 aircraft frame."

"There are not many such transport planes, it seems that there are only five in total, and they are mainly used by the Airbus Group for transportation between several factories in Europe, and occasionally they are rented out to transport large equipment, cars, artworks and other items. "

David didn't say anything, but Wu Qian thought that the strangely shaped plane was a concept plane, but he really didn't expect it to be a transport plane. He looked at the "white whale" flying towards the distant clouds with great interest, and was amazed.

After a while, the vehicle was parked in the parking lot. The place where the big plane is built, the parking lot is also very large. After all, there are more than [-] employees going to work here, and not everyone will take the company commuter car to and from get off work.

Wu Qian got out of the car and looked at a neat row of uniformly painted employee commuter buses in the opposite parking space. He said with a smile, "The Mercedes-Benz logo on the front is not as eye-catching as the "AIRBUS" spray, haha."

Daimler, with a market value of less than 800 billion US dollars, is really a little brother in front of Airbus, which has a market value of more than 3000 billion US dollars.

Because bulletproof factors have to be considered, the windows of the Phantom are smaller than those of the regular Phantom. Sitting in the car and looking out, it will be a little depressing. Standing in the parking lot, Wu Qian looks around and has an extremely wide field of vision.

Due to special reasons, there is no tall building within the scope of the Airbus headquarters to block the view.

From a distance, he could see many low-rise office buildings and huge factory buildings, as well as several planes parked beside the flight test runway, and a plane with the words A350 painted on its fuselage was turning around, as if preparing for a test flight.

"Mr. Wu, where do you plan to go for a walk first, or rest in the lounge and start visiting after lunch?" Dimaneva walked to Wu Qian and asked, his two assistants had disappeared.

"It's still early, let's go to the A380 assembly workshop first."

Wu Qian was deeply influenced by the concept of "big is beautiful", and was most interested in the giants in the sky.

Of course, Dimaneva had no objection. He led Wu Qian and the others towards the largest assembly workshop in the Airbus headquarters.

On the way, through the introduction of Dimaneva, Wu Qian learned that the assembly plant that can accommodate large aircraft is not easy.

The A380 assembly workshop is the largest building of its kind in the world, with a length of 500 meters, a width of 250 meters, and a height of 46 meters. The amount of steel used to build the assembly hall and the test workshop reached [-] tons. These steel materials can be used to build three Eiffel Towers.

Wu Qian followed Dimaneva towards the factory building. He noticed this big guy early on and guessed that this should be the largest passenger aircraft assembly factory in the world.

Seeing it from a distance is completely different from being up close.

Two words, shocking!

The height of the frame is 46 meters, which is as high as the [-]th floor of an ordinary building. When you look up, you can see the dense steel frame, which makes people feel a little dizzy.

On the ground of the factory building are densely packed railroad tracks, criss-crossing cranes and huge steel doors for entry and exit.

There are more than a dozen partitions in the assembly plant, and the processes such as wing and fuselage docking, painting, circuit installation and testing are all carried out separately.

"During the busiest time, up to eight A380s can be assembled here at the same time."

Proud presentation by Dimaneva.

However, the proud words could not conceal the melancholy in his heart, that grand occasion was gone forever.

Today, hesitation has no new orders, and only one aircraft is being assembled in the factory without haste.

Wu Qian carefully looked at the huge monster with "muscles and bones" exposed not far away, and he could see the internal structure of the plane at a glance.

"Such a good plane, the ride comfort is unparalleled, but no one buys it, it's really..."

Wu Qian muttered softly.

Wu Qian spoke Chinese, but Dimaneva could understand him, so he sighed secretly.

"If there were more people like Mr. Wu in the world who are able to understand the pearl, the A380 will not lose to this era."

It’s not that the A380 is not good enough. This aircraft has many advantages, but these advantages gradually become less important as airlines’ operating models improve and people’s travel habits change.

And the price to buy these advantages is too high.

How can there be a lack of people who love this big plane in the world? As long as the passengers who have taken it once, except for the passengers who are a few seats next to the engine will complain a little about the noise of the Rolls-Royce engine, almost all of them are positive.

However, the airline is not run by these people.

There are really too few people who like this aircraft and can afford it.

Standing beside Wu Qian, Dimaneva looked at the A380 being assembled, thinking back in 2005, the scene of the first flight test of this aircraft was truly unprecedented.

On the day of the first flight of the A380, in order to cope with the large number of visitors from all over the world, the local department of Toulouse temporarily prepared a parking lot for [-] cars, and dispatched [-] military police and police from nearby cities to maintain order in the city.

Some aerospace enthusiasts even camped outside Airbus headquarters for more than a week just to capture the moment of takeoff.

As early as 2000, five years before the first flight of the A380, Singapore Airlines announced the purchase of ten A380s, followed by Emirates, Lufthansa, British Airways, Qantas, Qatar, South Korea, Malaysia...

Orders came in one after another, and the limelight was the same for a while.

However, the good times didn't last long, and in the end, the success was "too big" and the failure was "too big". Because of the high cost of refurbishment and the inability to guarantee the occupancy rate, this domineering aircraft gradually became uninterested.

Today, if you only look at the A380 production line, Airbus, which has a lot of glory, is actually running at a loss. It is not an exaggeration to actually sell one plane and lose one plane.

Airbus Group has not given up on the A380. In the face of the market, they are actively upgrading the original version of the A380.

At the Paris Air Show in 2017, an "improved version" of the A380 Plus was launched. On the one hand, winglets were added to reduce fuel consumption. On the other hand, up to 80 seats can be added by changing the staircase design and seat layout.

At the same time, the extended version and cargo version of the A380 are designed in addition to the basic model.

Failure to make a profit does not mean that the product is not good. No airlines favor the A380 because it cannot help them make profits. It does not mean that it is unsafe, uncomfortable, or luxurious.

It's just that for airlines, the A380 is not profitable and cost-effective. They can use smaller aircraft and lower operating costs to create more profits.

It's a pity that the word cost performance has never appeared in the eyes of the top rich!

What the top rich people pursue is an extreme, an extreme that ordinary people cannot enjoy.

In order to achieve the ultimate, the cost often needs to rise geometrically.

(End of this chapter)