Legendary Captain

Chapter 263 I've come to see the world's number one!

Since entering the flight preparation room, Xu Xian has been gossiping about other people, but now it seems he's getting gossiped about himself.

It had been two minutes past the check-in time, but he still hadn't seen the captain who was flying with him. There were only a few people in the flight preparation room, so Xu Xian couldn't possibly have missed him.

Xu Xian thought for a moment and decided to put aside his pre-flight preparations and go to the flight medical staff to ask about the captain's check-in status.

Sometimes, captains will arrive very early, for example, to have breakfast. They will sign in early before having breakfast, so this situation sometimes occurs.

If the flight medical records show that the captain has already signed in, then Xu Xian doesn't need to rush.

"Hello, could you please check if the captain of flight 6341 has checked in?" Xu Xian asked the flight doctor.

"Flight 6341?" The flight doctor's face showed a hint of recollection. "It seems he's already on the field?"

"What? He's on the field? How is that possible? It's only a few o'clock, and the other crew members are still here. How could he have entered?" Xu Xian was shocked. It seemed like nothing was going normally today.

The flight surgeon checked on the computer: "Was the captain who flew with you named Li Sheng?"

"Yeah!" Xu Xian's expression gradually stiffened: "They're really going in?"

"He's actually inside! But it seems he changed his flight."

"Change flights? What does that mean? What about me?"

The flight doctor clicked on the computer for a while, then looked up at Xu Xian and smiled: "There's no captain in your flight's real-time crew information. It seems you'll have to find another captain."

"You mean the captain was arrested and the plane was rebooked on another flight?" Xu Xian finally understood. "Why didn't anyone notify me?"

"You mean dispatcher?" The flight doctor gestured towards the exit. "Look at that dispatcher's face. Do you think he has time to care about your affairs?"

Xu Xian paused, then looked in the direction the flight doctor was pointing, which was directly in Cao Jinwen's direction. Xu Xian suddenly realized, "The person next to General Manager Cao is the dispatcher!"

The dispatcher was red-faced and visibly angry as he explained something to Cao Jinwen, while Cao Jinwen's face was full of displeasure.

"It's all a mess!" Xu Xian was speechless. Without the captain, how could they possibly fly?

The remaining captains in the flight preparation room were idly playing on their phones. Their co-pilots were either on sick leave, personal leave, or simply unreachable. Without co-pilots, none of the captains in the flight preparation room could fly.

At the entrance to the preparation room, Cao Jinwen asked directly, "How many more flights can we guarantee?"

"We've already implemented over-scheduled operations for key flights, which should allow them to take off on time. As for the other flights, it's hard to say." The dispatcher's voice trailed off towards the end, becoming almost inaudible.

The flight operations have been completely chaotic, which ultimately stems from a large-scale grounding and lack of cooperation among co-pilots. This is a personnel issue, and the coordinator of the crew scheduling is now firmly held responsible.

However, since things have come to this point, all the coordinator can do is try to make their own mistakes a little bit smaller.

Among airline flights, some require special attention. The reasons for this vary, but the common thread is the need to prioritize the punctuality of these flights; otherwise, significant consequences could occur. Too many delays or cancellations of these priority flights can negatively impact an airline's rating; therefore, ensuring punctuality for these flights is extremely important.

Therefore, in the absence of enough co-pilots, the only option is to temporarily assign captains to fill in for co-pilots on flights, which means operating a certain number of flights with two captains.

In most regular flights, operating with two assistant captains is already considered over-allocation and is strictly prohibited. If the planning department dares to schedule flights this way without special reasons, or the dispatcher dares to adjust flights in this way, they will almost certainly be punished.

Because such over-sizing is a blatant waste of company money, and capitalists have never been able to tolerate such waste.

If having two co-pilots is already considered an overkill, then having two captains is pure luxury. Flights with two captains are only used on a very few special routes or when key personnel are involved. Otherwise, flights with two captains are practically nonexistent.

The cost of a captain is too high. Each additional captain requires a considerable extra expense, which is even more costly than having an extra assistant.

Most of the key flights operated by Star Travel do not require two captains. However, in order to ensure that these key flights take off on time, nearly 80% to 90% of them are operated with two captains, which is a significant expense for the company.

Moreover, since most captains have very full flight schedules and their rest periods are strictly limited, very few captains can cooperate with extra flights while still meeting their rest requirements. In the end, the dispatcher had no choice but to bring in captains from relatively less important flights or flights with low load factors.

Xu Xian's situation clearly falls into this category. His captain had been reassigned to fly priority flights earlier. Meanwhile, the dispatch center was overwhelmed with personnel allocation and had no time to care about Xu Xian.

"I've immediately contacted the marketing department and asked them to send a chart outlining the costs of flight cancellations today. We'll probably have to cancel quite a few flights today," the dispatcher said worriedly.

So far, over fifty flights have been confirmed cancelled, and that number is still rising. Considering that Star Travel only operates around two hundred flights a day, this represents a quarter of the total cancellations, which is quite devastating.

At this point, the only solution is to rob Peter to pay Paul, canceling flights with few passengers or low sales to free up crew members for more valuable flights.

Even though he was mentally prepared, Cao Jinwen still felt a throbbing pain in his temples when he heard the dispatcher's words. He had never seen such a large-scale manpower shortage before.

"Damn it, what's going on with those co-pilots? Given the same situation on the same day, is this intentional?" Cao Jinwen cursed. "Seven or eight out of ten co-pilots are unable to fly for various reasons. I guess we're the only ones in the entire civil aviation industry experiencing this, right? Has this ever happened before?"

The dispatcher sighed, "Mr. Cao, isn't this obvious? So many co-pilots not flying at the same time must have been premeditated. Otherwise, what a coincidence!"

"These co-pilots are usually useless, but they're really good at causing trouble," Cao Jinwen said through gritted teeth.

Cao Jinwen wasn't as extreme as Lu Xinyu, who completely disregarded the passenger seat. However, to say that Cao Jinwen had any respect for the passenger seat would be pure nonsense. In Cao Jinwen's mind, the passenger seat was just an assistant; there was no difference between a first and second passenger seat, and in case of any special situation, neither could be relied upon.

Therefore, Cao Jinwen was extremely angry about the flight support problems caused by the co-pilots' collective refusal to fly.

Cao Jinwen: "Make a list of all the co-pilots who took personal leave, sick leave, or other excuses to avoid cooperating with the arrest today. After today, if we don't settle accounts with them properly, do they really think they can do whatever they want?"

It's now fairly certain that today's large number of co-pilots being unable to fly is not a coincidence. Regardless of the reason, the significant disruption to the company's flight operations is a fact, and someone has to pay the price. The co-pilots who took sick leave, personal leave, or made excuses to fly today are highly suspicious. Cao Jinwen doesn't deny that there might be some unintentional individuals involved, but he can't worry about that now. When the leaders who have heard the news arrive, he needs to provide an explanation.

Cao Jinwen's approach was understandable, but the dispatcher had a different opinion: "President Cao, if this is tallied up, at least 70% of the co-pilots will be on the list. 70%! How can we possibly move them?"

Cao Jinwen was taken aback, then became even more furious. The co-pilots, who were usually so easily manipulated, were surprisingly troublesome when they banded together. The saying goes, "the law does not punish the masses," but if the scope of the retribution was too broad, who knew if it would push those co-pilots too far and cause another collective strike?

Once you've done something the first time, the second and third times won't be far behind.

"How could this have happened?" With Cao Jinwen's way of thinking, he really couldn't understand why such a thing had happened.

Soon, news of the massive cancellations of Star Travel flights will spread. Given the current information channels in society, it's estimated that it won't be long before many people know that the large-scale strike by Star Travel's co-pilots is the cause. Indeed, Cao Jinwen believes these co-pilots have deliberately staged a strike; otherwise, there's no other explanation for the current situation.

When the news gets out, Star Travel will become famous.

Reverse fame

Upon learning that his captain had been reassigned to fly another flight, Xu Xian was momentarily at a loss, unsure of what to do. He tried calling the dispatch, flight control, and operations control departments, but all the lines were busy. He figured those departments were probably in a state of chaos, so getting through was out of the question.

There was a dispatcher next to Cao Jinwen, but seeing that the two of them looked bitter and resentful, he decided to avoid provoking them. Looking at the captains around him who were also idle, Xu Xian decided to put down his work and go to the lounge for a cup of tea, since staying here was a waste of time anyway.

Just as Xu Xian finished tidying up the things on the table and was about to leave, he bumped into a co-pilot who came in. Xu Xian recognized the man; he was Zhu Jia, the first co-pilot from his first flight.

After entering the flight preparation room, Zhu Jia buried his head in his hands and walked toward the large breathalyzer, seemingly oblivious to the strange atmosphere in the preparation room.

Xu Xian was looking for something to do when he saw Zhu Jia sign in, so he decided to catch up with him. Xu Xian had a pretty good impression of Zhu Jia.

Perhaps Zhu Jia really is the type to bury herself in her work. After signing in, she went straight to collect her documents without saying a word, only to bump into the smiling Xu Xian as soon as she turned around.

"Brother Jia, where are we flying to?"

Zhu Jia was stunned for a moment. After seeing that the person who came was Xu Xian, she first glanced at the captain waiting in the preparation room, then looked at the time on her watch, and then pulled Xu Xian's arm and walked out.

Xu Xian was pulled directly to the smoking room by Zhu Jia. At this time, the smoking room was empty and there was no one there.

"Brother Jia, what's wrong?" Seeing Zhu Jia's nervous demeanor, Xu Xian wondered if something serious had happened.

After confirming that no one was around, Zhu Jia asked, "Are you flying today?"

"Yeah, why would I come here so early if I wasn't flying?"

"Hey, what brings you to work today? You just happened to run into this." Zhu Jia said speechlessly, "Do you even know what happened?"

Xu Xian pointed towards the flight preparation room, then suddenly revealed a smile that seemed to enjoy watching a good show: "A rebellion?"

Zhu Jia's face darkened: "You're treating this like a joke? This matter has blown up so much, you can't just laugh it off. I hope you don't have to work today, so you don't get involved."

"Didn't you come and fly here too?" Xu Xian said dismissively.

Zhu Jia was surprised that Xu Xian would retort with just one sentence, and said helplessly, "I still have family members to support and loans to pay off. How can I not fly? Those striking co-pilots may not be rich, but at least they have some family wealth to support them. Do I have that? If I didn't have to rely on this job for a living, I would definitely join the strike too. But I have no choice because of life's pressures."

Xu Xian roughly knew Zhu Jia's family situation. His wife didn't have a high level of education, and in Yunnan, where the wages were extremely low, she could only find a job that paid a little over three thousand yuan a month. That wasn't even as much as Zhu Jia could earn for flying for two extra days!

Just then, Zhu Jia also had a child, and his wife became a full-time housewife.

Moreover, both Zhu Jia and his wife come from poor families. Their parents not only fail to support the young couple, but they also occasionally need financial assistance from them. Therefore, Zhu Jia is essentially working to support three families, which puts him under considerable pressure.

"Do you know who started this?" Seeing that Zhu Jia seemed to know some inside information, Xu Xian quickly inquired about the gossip. After a year of experiencing various events, Xu Xian was now simply watching the show as an observer. He didn't care what impact his actions might have, because he didn't care.

Zhu Jia rolled her eyes: "You know how the company has been treating us lately. To be honest, the people in charge at the company are really getting old and out of touch with the thinking of young people. Do they still think that because pilots are paid well, we'll blindly obey them? Times have changed. It's not like the old days where you can just pay someone to be your slave."

Young people today seem to have little interest in ambition and hard work. In addition, with the general improvement in the national standard of living, job comfort is a higher priority than a generous salary.

Moreover, Star Travel has been putting too much pressure on its pilots, especially the co-pilots, during this period.

If it were just a small number of co-pilots wanting to retaliate against the company, this might not have happened. But if there are many of them, the situation changes. With so many against one, everyone's willing to do it, since the law doesn't punish everyone. Surely the company can't just arrest all of them?

Honestly, it takes some skill for Star Travel to have offended its co-pilots so thoroughly. This wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been a consensus among the co-pilots. The fact is, half the co-pilots directly participated in the strike, 20% cooperated silently, and the remaining 10% were pressured by financial constraints. Although they wanted to join the strike, they continued flying to support their families; Zhu Jia belonged to this category.

Less than 20% of co-pilots are completely uninvolved in this matter, both mentally and physically. Xu Xian belongs to this category. However, Xu Xian's situation is somewhat different.

Less than 20% of people explicitly refused, while Xu Xian had no idea about it at all, because no one had mentioned it to him.

Xu Xian's current situation is somewhat special. Although his technical rank is co-pilot, his reputation is quite significant. The co-pilots felt that bringing Xu Xian into the picture would make the situation uncontrollable, so to be on the safe side, they didn't actively contact him.

Their idea was to isolate Xu Xian and leave him alone.

"By the way, who was the captain of your flight today?" Zhu Jia suddenly asked.

Xu Xian: "Li Sheng, what's wrong?"

"Li Sheng? That guy's no good either. At this sensitive time, you'd better not fly with him. Or you could try to switch shifts. Many shifts don't have co-pilots right now, so your request for a shift change might be approved," Zhu Jia advised. "Find a co-pilot with a good reputation, like Instructor Ning Sheng. Flying with him will prevent you from being seen as an adversary of the co-pilots. I know you probably don't care about being on the opposite side of the co-pilots, but it's always better to avoid creating conflict."

Instructor Ning Sheng is indeed quite adept at interpersonal relationships. Almost all the co-pilots who have flown with him think he's a very nice person, so naturally, Ning Sheng has a very good reputation among the co-pilots. In their minds, Ning Sheng is practically one of their own, so if Xu Xian were to fly with Ning Sheng, it wouldn't cause any resentment among the co-pilots.

Of course, Zhu Jia knew that Xu Xian was different now, and the so-called offense to the co-pilots was probably something Xu Xian didn't care about at all. However, adhering to the principle of avoiding trouble, Zhu Jia still felt it necessary to remind Xu Xian.

Just as Zhu Jia had predicted, Xu Xian didn't care about the co-pilot's dissatisfaction at all. However, while Xu Xian wasn't afraid of trouble, he hated it. If possible, he might really consider changing flights. There were quite a few captains on site who couldn't find a co-pilot, so it seemed like he could choose a captain himself.

"It's alright, Captain Li Sheng was reassigned to another flight. I'll talk to dispatcher later and ask them to reassign me to another flight with a captain who has a good reputation."

Upon hearing that Xu Xian's flight captain had been arrested, Zhu Jia quickly said, "If the captain has been arrested, what's the point of you flying? Just say you're not flying anymore, don't get involved in this mess."

"Brother Jia, I have to undergo some kind of cross-regional inspection in a couple of days, it's really annoying. I don't know the details of this cross-regional inspection, but I still want to fly around more to warm up my skills."

"You're on today's cross-regional inspection? I'm surprised!" Zhu Jia exclaimed in surprise. But then she thought about it and realized that letting Xu Xian undergo the inspection wasn't a bad idea. After all, he could handle even special cases, so a cross-regional inspection shouldn't be a problem either; it was a safe choice for the company.

Flying is a skill that requires practice; if you don't fly for a long time, you'll become rusty. So Xu Xian's plan is reasonable.

"Fine, whatever you want." Seeing that Xu Xian had his own plans, Zhu Jia didn't say anything more. The two chatted casually for a while before returning to the flight preparation room.

When the two entered the flight preparation room, there were a few more people inside, but they were mostly bewildered captains. Moreover, Xu Xian spotted a familiar figure inside.

Summer Passion!

Since their peaceful breakup after the forced landing on the Kunyang River, Xu Xian had never seen Xia Qing again. There was no conflict between them; Xu Xian simply felt that Xia Qing and he were not on the same wavelength. As time went on, their differing beliefs would inevitably lead to a lot of friction, so it was better to end things before their relationship progressed further.

Fortunately, Xu Xian wasn't a man who couldn't control his lust, and even during his brief relationship with Xia Qing, the two didn't have any intimate relations. This allowed Xu Xian, who had relatively conservative views on men and women, to break up very easily; otherwise, he might have ended up in a situation like with Wen Jingshu.

Why does Wen Jingshu hold a special significance for Xu Xian? Because Wen Jingshu is the only woman Xu Xian has ever been intimate with, so deep down in Xu Xian's heart, Wen Jingshu is distinct from all the other women.

Of course, the reverse is also true; Xu Xian also holds special significance for Wen Jingshu in the group, for the same reason.

Although Xu Xian and Wen Jingshu are two young people, they are still extremely conservative in some of their views.

When Xu Xian saw Xia Qing, she was talking to a captain who looked very impatient: "Coordination? Coordination my ass! We can't even get the crew together, what's the point of flying! How many times have you asked, what's the point?"

"Captain, I'm sorry. We have strict regulations regarding crew coordination. If we can't coordinate on time, we need to explain the reason. The cabin crew department might call you later. If it's convenient, please explain the situation to us," Xia Qing said apologetically.

Compared to the endless stream of rules in the flight department, the cabin department is no better off, with just as many rules, such as the crew coordination issues that Xia Qing just mentioned.

The captain was probably extremely annoyed by the inability to fly the flight. After all, he had gotten up very early and hadn't earned any money, which would upset anyone. Therefore, his attitude towards Xia Qing was extremely unfriendly: "This is your business. Do I have an obligation to cooperate with you?"

Xia Qing was speechless after being choked by the captain. Suddenly, as if sensing something, she shifted her gaze slightly and saw a handsome and sunny figure standing not far away.

Xu Xian smiled at Xia Qing, appearing extremely carefree. He had completely severed ties with Xia Qing regarding their romantic relationship, so he felt no psychological burden whatsoever, nor did he act coy or pretentious; he simply greeted her openly and naturally.

Xia Qing looked slightly surprised, then nodded slightly, as if to greet Xu Xian.

The captain opposite Xia Qing noticed Xia Qing's movements and followed her gaze to find Xu Xian's location.

Although Xu Xian was a little distance away from Xia Qing, his hearing was excellent, and he roughly understood what the two were saying. He noticed that the captain was looking at him, and without saying a word, he simply met the captain's gaze.

For some reason, the captain was the first to look away and coughed lightly twice: "Um... we just need to explain the situation to the cabin crew, right? Is there anything else?"

Upon seeing the captain relent, Xia Qing exclaimed with delight, "Yes, yes!"

"Alright then, if the cabin crew calls, I'll explain the situation." The captain glanced at Xu Xian, only to find Xu Xian still looking in his direction. He muttered under his breath, "Damn it!"

"Is there anything else? If not, you can go back now. We'll contact you again if there are any new developments." The captain was eager to get rid of Xia Qing so that Xu Xian wouldn't keep watching her.

Xia Qing understood the captain's implied dismissal and took her leave. Instead of going to the closer exit on the other side, she took a slight detour, passing by Xu Xian's side.

"Thank you!" Xia Qing knew that the captain's change was definitely not due to a change of heart, but rather the pressure from Xu Xian.

Xu Xian laughed and said, "I didn't do anything."

"You really are..." Xia Qing sighed, "Never mind, I don't think I have any right to talk to you anymore. I'll be going now."

Xia Qing was well aware of her place; after simply thanking Xu Xian, she prepared to leave. But as soon as she took a step, she remembered something, immediately turned back, and said solemnly, "My friend at Kunlong Airlines recently told me that one of their instructors is coming to inspect our company, and you'll be inspected as well. Their company's opinion of you isn't very good right now, so be careful not to get harassed."

The civil aviation circle is very small, and the turnover rate of cabin crew is much higher than that of pilots, so cabin crew members actually have a much wider network of relationships than pilots. Xia Qing has cabin crew friends at Kunlong Airlines.

Previously, due to the leak of information by Han Qi revealing Xu Xianchao's failed low-altitude maneuver, Kunlong Airlines harbored significant hostility towards Xu Xianchao, which was quite evident within the airline. In any case, "Xu Xianchao" was not a positive term used by Kunlong Airlines.

Cross-regional inspections between airlines are not a secret; many people know about it, including Xia Qing's friend with the Kunlong.

Xia Qing and Xu Xian had a past relationship, which her friend knew, so she specifically mentioned it to Xia Qing. Given this connection, and the fact that they happened to run into Xu Xian, Xia Qing made the point of reminding him.

Before Xu Xian could speak, a voice came from the side: "This beautiful lady seems to be talking about me!"

Xu Xian and Xia Qing turned their gazes to the source of the sound almost simultaneously, and what came into view was a middle-aged man dressed in casual clothes.

"Who are you?" Xu Xian asked subconsciously.

The man smiled and said, "I am Sheng Shilong, the instructor from Kunlong Aviation who came to inspect you."

"Sheng Shilong!" Xu Xian's eyes narrowed; it really was the inspector from Kunlong Airlines. The company had already sent him the inspector's information beforehand, and the name matched.

Xu Xianping breathed calmly: "Teacher, what brings you here? It doesn't seem like the inspection is scheduled yet."

Not only is the inspection date not yet set, but to be precise, the inspection date hasn't even been announced yet. It's quite unusual that the inspectors have already traveled a long distance to arrive before the inspection schedule has even been released.

Connecting this to what Xia Qing just said, this Sheng Shilong seems to have ill intentions!

Sheng Shilong laughed heartily: "I didn't come for an inspection. I'm just here in a private capacity. I just want to broaden my horizons."

"Oh? Instructor Sheng is interested in our company building?" Xu Xian said sarcastically.

Sheng Shilong ignored Xu Xian's sarcasm and waved his hand dismissively: "What's so interesting about this building? I came to see the world's number one!"

(End of this chapter)