"Now yes i could be looking through rose tinted glasses but once the demoted skippers get back in the LHS and the chaps that were made redundant return the the business i suspect Virgin being Virgin will expand like they did 5/6 years ago as we come out of the recession and return to profitability..."
Sounds familiar. I remember that when I left Virgin in 2002 after their first experience of having to make pilots redundant there was plenty of talk like that. But Virgin had expanded too fast for their market and caught a cold. Did they learn? No, they didn't and it happened again.
I was about the last to join Virgin before 9/11. I took voluntary redundancy, but my joining mate stayed and was perhaps about 50 to 60 off a command when the latest round happened. Now he will be looking at a very long time. So 15 years may be correct, but is optimistic in my view.
That's because I reckon they have currently (re)found their correct size for their market and business model, and won't expand much more above their current size.