At 10 o'clock on Friday morning, Li Jianhui and Wei Li went to the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department together.
Xiangjiang Airlines uses Kai Tak Airport as its main base and needs to build many supporting facilities.
And because Kai Tak Airport is extremely busy and has limited apron, Xiangjiang Airlines also needs to build its own apron so that its company's aircraft can park its aircraft for a long time.
Li Jianhui and others already have ideas for building land for aviation food production areas, aircraft repair and maintenance bases, aprons, etc.
Now we are mainly communicating with the Civil Aviation Department responsible for airport management. Once approved, Li Jianhui will immediately start construction.
Until these supporting facilities are completed, Xiangjiang Airlines can only temporarily cooperate with Xiangjiang Aircraft Engineering Company.
Although Swire is still in control of this company, it has slowly acquired shares over the past year, and Xinjian Investment Company has become the second largest shareholder of this company with 23% of the shares.
Although Swire cannot seize control of this company, it still has some say and is not afraid of Swire going out of its way to embarrass Xiangjiang Airlines.
And before its own supporting industries are established, Li Jianhui will mainly focus on Taoyuan Airport, and these aircraft will mainly stay at the Taoyuan base.
Although there are not many routes on the Xiangjiang side, there are quite a few routes on the Taoyuan side. Half of Xiangjiang Airlines' routes in Asia are from Taoyuan to a city, and then from this city to Xiangjiang, and then from Xiangjiang back to that city, and then again.
From that city return to Taoyuan.
For example, from Taoyuan to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Xiangjiang, from Xiangjiang to Tokyo, and from Tokyo to Taoyuan.
Osaka, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Sin Chew, etc. These routes are currently arranged in this way.
At the same time as the construction of Xiangjiang, Taoyuan Airport will also be constructed simultaneously. Xiangjiang Airlines will use Kai Tak Airport as its main base and Taoyuan Airport as its auxiliary base.
The Civil Aviation Department was okay with this, and did not embarrass Xiangjiang Airlines. They directly agreed to Xiangjiang Airlines' application.
However, some special requirements have been made at the Xiangjiang Airlines base access airport to prevent Xiangjiang Airlines from affecting the normal operations of Kai Tak Airport.
"Mr. Driver, please rest assured that Xiangjiang Airlines will strictly abide by relevant regulations in construction and operation and will never cause any trouble to the operation of Kai Tak Airport."
"Hong Kong's air transport industry has developed rapidly in recent years. I also hope that Hong Kong's airlines can unite with each other, win the trust of passengers with their own services, and promote the sustainable development of our Hong Kong air transport industry."
Driver is somewhat familiar with the struggle between several major consortiums, especially the fact that Hong Kong Airlines previously held a recruitment banner outside Cathay Pacific, which triggered heated discussions among all walks of life in Hong Kong.
He didn't want several parties to bring this fire to the airport, especially since Kai Tak Airport was small in size, had only one runway, and had a very large passenger flow. If there were some conflicts between several parties, the damage to the airport would be great.
After leaving the Civil Aviation Department, Li Jianhui immediately asked Wei Li to purchase an old community northwest of the airport and a bakery in it.
According to Xiangjiang Airlines' plan, the number of aircraft owned by Xiangjiang Airlines will increase to 100 within ten years. If the base is too small, it will not be able to meet the needs of Xiangjiang Airlines.
And Li Jianhui is not worried about losing money at all. Even if the airport is relocated in the future, he can completely demolish it and build Wheelock Plaza and a residential community.
As for the company's employee accommodation complex, Li Jianhui has no plans to buy it. He will temporarily rent some houses for employees to use. When the first phase of Huangpu Garden is completed, airline employees will be able to live there.
"Li Sheng, this time we make the acquisition, I'm afraid these people will raise the price, and some will even speak loudly. If we want to complete the acquisition of this area, I'm afraid it will be difficult to complete it in a short time."
As soon as the news of Xiangjiang Airlines establishing an aviation base comes out, housing and land prices around the airport will inevitably skyrocket.
It's just that the area around Kai Tak Airport is so large, there isn't much wasteland for Xiangjiang Airlines to use.
If we choose to reclaim land from the sea, the cost will only be higher than acquiring these old communities.
If it is more expensive, it will be more expensive. Anyway, land prices in Xiangjiang will continue to soar in the future. If you pay more now, you can make money back in the future.
Moreover, Li Jianhui believes that the vast majority of residents would not want to live here if they had a choice. The noise from planes taking off and landing every day is not something that ordinary people can bear. As for individual households that are stuck, Li Jianhui has many solutions.
In terms of funds, the order for 12 Airbus A300B4-100s and five Boeing 747-200s cost US$310 million, approximately HK$1.586 billion.
In addition to the construction of two maintenance and support bases in Xiangjiang and Baodao, Li Jianhui asked several major investment companies to conduct a new round of financing, which reduced the shares of several major banks such as East Asia, Daoheng, Defeng, and Xinjian, and also increased the number of shares for Xiangjiang Airlines.
1 billion Hong Kong dollars in funding.
No wonder there has always been only one airline in Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific. It is too expensive to develop a good airline.
Moreover, the recovery cost of this industry is far from being comparable to that of real estate. The cost recovery of an aircraft takes at least seven or eight years. If it encounters an unpopular route, it will not be able to recover the cost in ten years.
Li Jianhui established an airline not to make a lot of money, but to have influence.
If you had one of the world's top five passenger airlines, the weight of your words would be completely different.
Li Jianhui did not put all this matter on Wei Li. After all, this person is mainly responsible for the affairs of the Tesco Group. In addition, Lane Crawford will be listed on the Far East Exchange next Wednesday, and Watsons will also be listed on the next Wednesday. Wei Li has a lot of work
busy.
Regarding the acquisition of old communities and factories, Li Jianhui only asked Wei Li to take overall responsibility, and the specific matters were handled by Su Hongtao, president of Wheelock Land.
After all, after Kai Tak Airport ceases operations, this land will also be owned by Wheelock Land, so they can come and contribute now.
Wheelock Construction Company will also be responsible for this construction, and the specific land acquisition will be decided by Wheelock Land.
I don’t know if some forces deliberately wanted to make it more difficult for Li Jianhui. On the day he entered the Civil Aviation Department, news about Xiangjiang Airlines’ plan to build an aviation base had already spread throughout the streets.
These citizens near the airport are extremely excited and full of anxiety. They are happy that the opportunity to change their destiny has arrived, but they are worried that they will miss this opportunity.
Xiangjiang Airlines, on the other hand, has not announced any specific plans. It seems that these news are just rumors and there is no idea of building an aviation base at all.
Only staff from Wheelock Land frequently visit the area around Kai Tak Airport and begin surveying and surveying these areas.
Instead, there is news from Kowloon Airlines that the company has leased two Boeing 747s from Delta Air Lines and will fly three routes from Xiangjiang to Beijing, Xiangjiang to Shanghai, and Xiangjiang to Yangcheng on the 1st of next month.
The citizens of Xiangjiang were quite surprised. They did not expect that the huge Xiangjiang Airlines would officially start operations later than Kowloon Airlines.