A lot of Virgin's problems are of their own making.
Some are easy to point out with the benefit of hindsight (eg not seeing that the future of long-haul has two engines).
However, they have simply failed to see the way the industry is going in terms of co-operation between carriers through partnerships which even an airline as rich in capital as Emirates has recognised.
It is somewhat ironic that if Virgin had the scrutiny and financial discipline that comes as a consequence of public ownership, it might have pursued a different course.
If they hadn't fought a completely futile battle against BA and AA (driven no doubt by the personalities involved) and had instead moved to respond, they wouldn't now be launching their own TATL joint-venture some four years after AA and BA which is now reaching a state of maturity. I do also wonder about Virgin's deal making ability behind the scenes given their failure to secure deals (or extract value from them) in the past.
When you consider that BA is forecast to make a profit of about £700m this year and Virgin is forecast to make another loss the divergence in performance of the two carriers is actually quite startling.
I'm sure the performance of Virgin will improve over the next couple of years but they have wasted a lot of time over the past few years.