"let's be honest, it was such a mess of over staffing and absurd fleet decisions"

Thread drift I know but, what exactly were the "staffing issues"? And what absurd fleet decisions?

Interesting commentary in the AFR suggesting James Hogan was behind it and that JB is out in 2016

Life after Virgin for James Hogan, Christopher Luxon, John Borghetti? | afr.com

Life after Virgin for James Hogan, Christopher Luxon, John Borghetti?

http://i.imgur.com/KEbeupu.png
http://i.imgur.com/MAEHkM5.png

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/busi...09-gpfw5q.html

Looks like Air New Zealand has found a buyer, also Chinese.

Yes, crew meals now flied lice and dim sum!

No chance of VA crew meals becoming edible, TBM.

Interesting to see the Virgin saga continue with the airline now to be controlled by Asian interests. Stand by for the capital raising announcement.

James Hogan would not be happy with the AFR article referring to him as a former Ansett trolley dolly. From memory James worked on the check-in counter in the International Terminal at Tullamarine.

Interesting the same paper had an article trumpeting a young entrepreneur (who's start up was fully backed by their rich Dad) yet a guy who has risen to the top of a listed company from a entry level position is given that rather demeaning write up.

Nanshan Group own 55% of Qingdao Airlines....... what are the odds that there is a side deal done back in China? evens or better??;)

Do not know anything about Qingdao Airlines but should you ever visit Qingdao make sure you visit or stay at the Hilton Golden Beach. It is an eye opener.

Great news for the A330 crews that will get to fly somewhere other than to Perth daily !

Provided that they don't open up an China crew base

I think China is still a net importer of A330 pilots. It's the Aus side of the traffic rights they want. And if I have to ferry Chinese tourists between Aus and China for them, I say Ni Hao and welcome.

So you've never experienced the 'delights' of operating in Chinese airspace then (think 'Bizarro-world').

That's an eye-opener as well.

I guess the next V Learn is going to be "Mandarin in 5 easy lessons". I wouldn't worry about it too much GW, Cairns and Hammo are already like that.

Why is Virgin Australia considered an Australian airline when it is not Australian owned??

The ownership structure of the international airline is different to that of the domestic airline.

Domestic airlines are allowed to be 100% foreign owned, whereas Australian designated international carriers must be 51% Australian owned.

The exception to all of this is Qantas by virtue of the Qantas sale act - how exactly it differs I couldn't tell you as I have not bothered to look other than I remember the discussion when VA split itself up into different entities in order to facilitate the differing ownership structures.

Albeit Virgin's structure is a little too 'cute' imho.

Reportedly the shareholding structure was 'grandfathered' before the foreign airlines bought in when it still was 51% Australian owned.

Albeit - the International airline doesn't seem to have a separate management team, or Board (although it seemingly did initially), it doesn't publish separate financials and given the recent losses in Qantas International, assuming Virgin was the same, it would seem strange that foreign shareholders would make shareholder loans that ultimately support an entity in which they have no interest

And then you have Tiger which obviously previously couldn't fly internationally (being 100% Singapore owned) now operating under this structure.

Qantas must remain at least 51% Australian owned This is enshrined in the Qantas Sale Act that was passed by the Australian Parliament. On the other hand, the international arm of Virgin Australia is notionally Australian owned but reality may suggest otherwise. Some very clever but legal structures were devised by VA to circumvent the requirement that Australian flag carriers be "Australian owned" to the extent that they have established that the international subsidiary complies with that requirement. Just how that is so remains a mystery to me.

As an aside, I think it's very bad government policy that an Australian domestic airline can be 100% foreign owned. Why are we allowing anything that moves to be dominated by foreign interest? :ugh::ugh::mad::mad:

So where is the media, Shorten, ACTU, CMFEU, MUA, Katter, Barnaby etc etc crying about a great Australian enterprise falling into Chinese/ foreign ownership

Air New Zealand already owned the shares? It was already foreign owned.

As long as they keep Aussie jobs I don't see how it matters. The majority of the wealth the country has seen in the last 10 years has been off the back of foreign owned companies.