On March 20 this year, the Huangpi District People's Court of Wuhan City issued a civil ruling: declaring Youhe Taotong Aviation Co., Ltd. bankrupt.
This is also another domestic airline that has officially declared bankruptcy after the bankruptcy of Emerald Airlines in 2012.
After the bankruptcy liquidation confirmed, the total debt of Youhe Taotong Airlines was 8.321 billion yuan, of which the arrears of employee wages alone were as high as 108 million yuan, which was a huge amount.
First, the brilliance on the tuyere
Founded in 2007, Youhe Taotong Airlines is jointly funded by Shenzhen Youhe Taotong Industrial Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Taotong Industrial Co., Ltd., with the latest shareholding ratios of 97.69% and 2.31% respectively.
Youho Taotong Airlines was officially put into operation in 2011, when the domestic express logistics industry was developing explosively, and the dividends of the times boosted the rapid development of Youho Taotong Airlines.
At its peak, Youhe Taotong Airlines had 13 large and medium-sized freighters, including 3 B747-200s, 7 A300-600s and 3 B747-400s, making it the first cargo airline in China to purchase and operate large freighters.
At that time, SF Airlines was still starting, YTO Airlines had not yet improved, and Youhe Taotong Airlines was a dominant company and became the hegemon and potential stock in the domestic cargo aviation market.
2. The darkness before dawn
When everyone thought that Yuwa Taotong Airlines would be able to thrive, the turning point of events came in 2019, when Yuwa Taotong Airlines was revealed to be in arrears of employees' wages, and even dismissed some employees in November of that year.
As a result, the problem of the rupture of the capital chain of Youhe Taotong Airlines and its shareholders began to surface, and it did not last for a few months, and then due to financial pressure, Youhe Taotong Airlines announced a complete suspension of flights.
Next, Youhe Autel Airlines began to seek financing and restructuring, but due to the huge debt burden, it never found a successor.
However, no one expected that 2020, the second year after the suspension of Youhe Taotong Airlines, that is, the first year of the epidemic, would become the first year of the outbreak of the cargo aviation market.
From 2020 to 2023, domestic cargo airlines made a lot of money during the three years of the epidemic, setting a record for the profitability of their flights.
In the face of such a lucrative market, Yuhe Taotong Airlines at that time was powerless, and could not solve the financial problem and could not resume flights, so it could only watch the opportunity to save itself and resurrect to be lost.
If Youhe Taotong Airlines successfully resumes flights in 2020, it will be easy to make a profit of 10 billion yuan in the three years of the epidemic, and it will be able to successfully solve the debt gap left in the early stage and successfully resurrect.
However, there are not so many ifs in the world, once you miss the opportunity, you can never turn over.
3. Bleakness after shattering
Since 2019, the assets of Youhe Taotong Airlines have been seized one after another, until there are no assets that can be executed.
In 2022, the desperate Youhe Taotong Airlines began to start bankruptcy reorganization, and Fujian Zongteng Network Co., Ltd. and AVIC Netlink International Logistics Co., Ltd. successively expressed their intention to reorganize, but they all ended in failure.
At the beginning of June this year, three planes of Youhe Taotong Airlines were put on the shelves for auction, with a starting price of 140 million yuan, and finally ended in a failed auction.
From this point of view, even if the bankruptcy liquidation is initiated, it will be more difficult for Youhe Taotong Airlines to pay off the debts owed, and there are still several tough battles to be fought if the creditors want to recover the debts.
It took only half a year for Youhe Taotong Airlines to take off to fall, and in the first half of 2019, it was still creating a new record for cargo volume, and it was completely suspended and dissolved in the second half of 2019.
What happened in the past six months, perhaps only Yuhe Taotong Aviation itself knows.
But there is no doubt that the freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and the thunderstorm of Youhe Taotong Airlines was planted in the years of its expansion, which may be the same as that of Hainan Airlines, which once expanded.
It's still the creditors, especially the employees, who want to get back the arrears of wages, which may really be far away.