A good friend of mine told me once that we as individuals mean nothing to the world, but we mean the world to those who love us. No company is irreplaceable. No one cares about an airline going into administration. The world has done just fine without PanAm, TWA, Monarch, Thomas Cook, and the many more to come and go. To paraphrase my friend, Virgin means nothing to world, but it means the world to those who work there. I am sure the brand will survive one way or another. Perhaps IAG buy it and have it as their boutique brand, or a private group, or the Germans, or the Chinese, or even RB decides to put money in it, who knows. Looking at the situation from the outside if Virgin goes, we will find some other airline to fly with. Nothing and no one is irreplaceable.
My favourite Italian chain Carluccio's went into administration, and though I am sure that those who worked there saw their world come crashing down, the consumers can still find a good Italian restaurant to eat their favourite pasta, or drink a good cup of coffee; HMRC will still get its taxes from someone else who gets the clientele, and even the employees will probably find somewhere else to work and call it home. For those who never knew about Carluccio's restaurants, they probably don't even care that this happened.
What is really despairing for me, is the fact that aviation has been decimated, without any real prospects of recovering any time soon, and this affects all of us working in the industry. Social distancing on aircraft doesn't work. The middle seat, or the newly proposed lovely cabin interiors which are shown in airline magazines don't meet the scientific requirements for social distancing. Unless we find a vaccine, airline flying is not coming back any time soon and we may all find ourselves unemployed so let us reflect on that for a moment.
Most of those pilots who are made redundant now will probably not see the inside of a flight deck ever again, and the longer this lasts, the longer the list of those who will be made redundant becomes, the more sorrow and pain it will cause all of us working for the airlines. I can't see how anyone who is a professional pilot can't see this as an existential danger to the profession and the long term conditions of service. It will probably mean that having a job, will not even be worth it anymore, because of what will be expected of us to do for the privilege of flying.
If Virgin goes into administration, it will be a sad day for the profession, as yet more colleagues will be made redundant, and more families will suffer, and more young people's dreams will be put on hold. Being a skilful pilot is probably very important for being successful, being lucky enough to be with the right airline is probably paramount this time around if one wants to continue in this profession, but having the emotional Intelligence to understand that these times require empathy is what differentiates people with integrity from sycophants.
I would suggest what my mother taught me when I was a little boy, still applies today on these boards; don't say anything, unless it is true, necessary and nice.