I thought it odd that they should operate their SYD service via HKG. They had good loads on HKG at the time and in order to carry through traffic to SYD their market share on LON-HKG must have gone down markedly. Since then BA and CX have increased frequencies and QF have started service. BA, CX and QF are all acting together as part of oneworld. This puts VS in a very weak position on LON-HKG in terms of marketing and market share. They are probably meeting their own objectives on the route but it is inevitably going to be a weak performance against such competition. What they need to do IMHO is reroute the SYD service vis either KUL CMB, or SSN ( there are currently no British services to either) and increase frequency on LON-HKG to at least 3 fkights per day. To inject something new into the LON-HKG market they should operate westbound by daylight with departures ex CLK at 0800, 1200 and 1600. That would provide real competition.