The Southwest model would have worked brilliantly for VA from the start. However it seems that Australian airlines and business in general have absolutely no concept of how to ensure staff are treated and remunerated appropriately to ensure happy customers and clients. There seems to be a complete lack of interest in any business model that would actually promote happy workers = happy customers and rewarding your valued hard working employees for being good at their job. All they seem to think is more hours and cheaper workforce wins the business wars... and of course ridiculously paid board members. Then wonder why the workers take as much cash as they can and then jump ship as soon as possible for better conditions.
Just imagine how much money you could save if you workforce actually loved working for you, from basic things like tire/brake wear reductions, to actual active management of route, altitude and speed to save fuel. Also they would stick around and want to work, so less call outs, less delays and cancellations, nice meaningful PAs, happier customers, more repeat custom. Suddenly by having a happy workforce your operating costs drop by 10-20% and passenger repeat custom increase 10-20%. But apparently it's all too hard for the brains trust running the show. And BTW, for the brains trust that think they can force anybody to do these things, good luck, pilots hate being told what to do, so try to force efficiencies on a group usually goes the opposite way with people actively going out of their way to make it not work. I've seen it over and over, and will continue to repeat as long as the workforce is unhappy.