The Directors had no choice because trading while insolvent would destroy them personally. This is why Directors and CEOs get paid big bucks, not that it is any consolation.
What I would hope for now is that the Australian Government leans over backward to ensure Virgin survives. The shareholders have lost pretty much everything, as is always their risk.
What concerns me now is that Qantas will be lobbying every decision maker in Government and Treasury - all the ******* ANU trained economists, to “let Virgin go” because “Australia can only afford one airline - economies of scale, you know”. Furthermore they will use every dirty trick in the book to destroy what’s left of Virgin. Probably already offering to honor their tickets, take their slots, rent their terminal space, etc., etc.
The critical issue now is the AOC and the continuing airworthiness of the aircraft and certification of crews. Once that gets affected Virgin is gone.That is where CASA comes in, they can either help keep Virgin on life support or be uncompromising and destroy it as they had to do to Ansett when they pulled the AOC.
God bless you all.