I am farming in the real world

Chapter 262: The Biggest Blue Ocean Market in the 21st Century!

Anyone who has bought a plane knows this.

Planes aren't like other consumer goods; you can't just pay and get the goods immediately.

For example, with large aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus, you have to wait several years just to get your order fulfilled.

Want to cut in line?

It's actually simple: pay more money to buy a manufacturing serial number.

The earlier the serial number is in the queue, the more money the customer has to pay.

In the past, a private plane customer from the Middle East spent more than $50 million to cut in line and get their Boeing 747 earlier from Boeing.

You should know that the cost of a bare Boeing 747 is only a little over $100 million.

To cut in line, that Middle Eastern customer spent half the price of another plane!

You can imagine how much money these near-monopoly aircraft manufacturers make.

However, seeing the heads of the various airlines almost fighting each other to get the order for the Flying Cube first, Chen Jue, as the host, couldn't bear to see everyone hurting the 'harmony'.

Also, to get the heads of these airlines to fork over the money more readily.

After greeting everyone at the venue, Chen Jue invited all these GMs and Chairmen to a conference room provided by the air show organizers.

Once everyone was seated and the PPT was opened, the quotation list for the 'Flying Cube' was displayed on the LCD screen.

"Hiss~ A single unit costs 500 million?"

"This… isn't this price a bit too high?"

"That's right! President Chen! A Boeing 737 only costs a little over $100 million to purchase. Can you lower the price, since yours is 5 times more expensive?"

"Are there any discounts for buying in bulk?"

The heads of the various airlines collectively exploded.

Xie Lifeng, the head of China Eastern Airlines, who had just spoken boldly about being the first to cut in line to purchase, now blushed and wished he could find a crack in the floor tiles to hide in.

The total assets of China Eastern Airlines are only a little over 270 billion. If they were to buy 300 Flying Cubes at once, China Eastern Airlines, which was already operating with high debt, would probably crash on the spot.

Seeing these big bosses next to him all clamoring about the high price, Wang Han, the representative of Juneyao Airlines who was also present, twitched his face and said, "Chen Jue, you forgot to put the RMB symbol on this PPT!"

"Ahem… Sorry, this PPT was rushed out temporarily." Chen Jue looked back and realized that the unit symbol was indeed missing, and immediately explained it to these middle-aged bosses present.

Upon hearing that the price was in RMB, not USD, the atmosphere in the conference room finally relaxed a lot.

However, the heads of these airlines still cast envious glances at Wang Han.

After all, Juneyao Airlines was the earliest entrant, and even the flight control system of the Flying Cube was developed by Wang Han and his team. It was conceivable that Chen Jue must have given them a lot of preferential treatment behind the scenes.

So, several heads who had cooperative relationships with Juneyao Airlines frequently signaled Wang Han at the table, hinting whether he could persuade this young President Chen.

"Everyone, uncles and elders, don't count on me!"

"We, Juneyao Airlines, have handed over most of our shares to barely get the first batch delivery sequence from the Cube Group. I didn't get a penny less for a single unit purchase," Wang Han revealed at the table.

Chen Jue also nodded in confirmation: "The Flying Cubes produced by our group are the latest cutting-edge products, especially the energy packs and engines, which use a large amount of rare earth materials and graphene. A purchase price of 500 million per unit is already a discount for our friendly partners."

"If we can really export in the future, this price cannot be calculated in RMB! It must be marked in USD or EUR."

Seeing that they couldn't get a penny less, everyone gave up the idea of bargaining.

However, turning around, these bosses present asked about the production capacity and delivery time of the Flying Cube.

After all, it concerned the replacement of hundreds of new and old models under their command.

If the delivery time was delayed for too long, it would be a huge loss for the airlines.

After riding the Flying Cube, ordinary passengers would no longer be in the mood to ride traditional old planes! They must get the delivery sequence as soon as possible.

Seeing that none of these airline heads dared to question the single-unit price of 500 million RMB, Chen Jue was also secretly delighted.

The landed cost of a Flying Cube, calculated according to materials and labor costs, is less than 20 million per unit in the Cube factory.

Once the Super Cube factory expansion is completed, this ex-factory price can be further reduced.

Calculated in this way, Chen Jue makes a net profit of 480 million for every Flying Cube sold.

And these domestic airlines present each own no less than a hundred planes.

Especially behemoths like Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines, which have no less than 900 planes under their command.

Once a full replacement is implemented, the economic benefits it drives can no longer be described in terms of hundreds of billions; it will definitely be at the trillion-level!

It's even faster than Chen Jue selling Cube arms at the Robot Conference.

So, after counting the order demand from those present and glancing at the draft contract value of 1264 units, Chen Jue flipped the PPT to give everyone a little insight.

"Currently, our Cube Group has 3 mature production lines, which can produce a Flying Cube in as little as 20 hours."

"When the Super Factory expansion is completed in January next year, the production lines will be expanded to 12, and it is expected that one unit can be landed in about 5 hours."

"These orders can be fully digested by September next year at the earliest!"

This production capacity was revealed, and all the bosses present showed excited expressions.

The faster the Cube Group builds, the earlier they can get their deliveries.

When some domestic airlines have completed the replacement, and then go abroad to seize international routes, based on the backward riding experience of those old Boeing and Airbus planes, it is absolutely impossible to be the opponent of the Flying Cube.

So, after hearing this production capacity data, the heads of China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines were thinking about whether to report more orders.

Only Tao Yeping, the chairman of Air China, frowned at the production capacity announced on the PPT and said, "President Chen, how confident is your company in obtaining international airworthiness certificates?"

"If it is only the domestic market, I am worried that the cost of replacing planes that everyone invests will not be enough for the ticket revenue!"

As soon as these words came out, many airline bosses present also became worried.

Since the epidemic, China's civil aviation industry has been greatly impacted.

In the past, air tickets cost thousands of yuan at every turn, but in the off-season, even selling them at a 10-20% discount did not result in a high load factor.

Therefore, for these airlines, the real money is still made by running international routes.

Because international routes are long, and the ticket prices charged for cross-border flights are expensive, which is much faster than domestic medium and short-haul routes.

Once this 'Flying Cube' is unable to withstand the pressure from Boeing and Airbus like Comac's C919 and cannot obtain European and American airworthiness certificates, then the resulting revenue will be greatly reduced.

Regarding Tao Yeping's concerns, Chen Jue shrugged his shoulders noncommittally and said, "European and American airworthiness certificates will definitely not be obtained in the short term! Even if the higher-ups allow our Cube Group to export, Boeing and Airbus will try every means to obstruct it."

"But don't worry, the benefits that the Flying Cube can bring are not limited to the existing mature routes."

"President Tao may wish to open up his thinking and temporarily forget the take-off and landing methods of old aircraft!"

As soon as the voice fell, Chen Jue, with a confident smile, continued to press the PPT.

Only to see on the new page of the PPT, the existing 421 mature commercial routes in China were marked out.

These routes are all over the north and south of China, basically covering the provincial capitals and popular tourist prefecture-level cities.

Passengers who choose to travel by plane will choose a route that suits them from these 421 commercial routes.

However, when Chen Jue scrolled the PPT, marking one by one those vacant, connected county-level blocks on the route map.

All the airline bosses present had their eyes shining.

Including President Tao, who raised the doubts, also showed an excited look at this moment.

"This… is this county-level general aviation?"

"That's right! How come I didn't think of it!"

"The Flying Cube can take off and land vertically!"

"Even the smallest county or town can build a playground for alternate landing and parking!"

"If all 2846 counties in the country achieve general aviation, wouldn't tens of thousands of new routes be added?"

"This is definitely the biggest blue ocean market in the 21st century!"

"Even if a single ticket sells for 100 yuan, it would be amazing!"