I don't know how the government can feign surprise from this process. Surely their conduit to the administration process, Nicholas Moore, must have been across the real intentions of the 2 VCs right from start and advised the minister for Rex of the likely outcomes early on. Not to be outdone, this cunning minister has a backstop though, with a very sharp lobbyist who will no doubt come up with a timely plan to gain significant additional funding for a transition into larger aircraft that will immediately fix the pesky virgin regional issue.
Problem solved.