VB are in deep ****. I read where they have mortgaged an aircraft to raise cash. The interesting thing is the timing of the expansion of the 49% SQ owned Tiger Airways. SQ, as history tells, us were very keen to buy Ansett ( when there was something there to buy)! The short of the long was that Q.F successfully lobbied the Federal government to prevent this. Then it was all over red rover for the AN group.
There is no doubt in my mind that SQ is going to spend a bit of dough to start a bit of a price war putting
VB under more pressure, either bankrupting them or putting themselves in a position that they have to be sold to inject capital and survive. By the look of it that won't take much.
VB have just committed to a very expensive trans Pacific experiment that is unlikely to yield any significant profit for a good while as NZ, QF will go hard to protect market share. I think it was DELTA? who indicated they would also join in the party.
The rights to fly trans Pacific from Australia's eastern seaboard is the jewel in the crown for SQ. They have wanted it for years and have the capital ,patience and smarts to see the way to get it is via Tiger. Virgin is vulnerable.
Virgin was handed 50% of the market on a platter when AN when tits up.
Since then it would have been hard not to make money. Now a real crisis is being faced and I really doubt that it has the management accumen to steer it successfully out of it.
As a survivor of the Ansett collapse I hope for the staff's sake that all they will have to endure is a change of ownership.