Definitely not. Look at who owns Virgin Aus, between them they have billions. Branson alone is worth around 8 Billion AUD and it seems he has enough sense not to invest further into an airline that isn’t making money.
Lets go back to majority Australian government owned ???? Its part of Australian infrastructure( essential) and should be majority owned and operated by taxpayers IMHO.
Why on earth would you entertain sure a desire. It has 5 billion dollar debt and has rarely returned a profit...last year a whopping 350mil loss. They are also nearly up to replace the fleet...Always remember, if it flies, floats or fucks, rent it never own it!
Because although the private enterprise promise is that it will be cheaper/better /more efficient, and competition will make it so, In the end it never happens. The government has been selling Australian assets ( which taxpayers paid for ) with this promise for decades. Not once has it been cheaper or better . Applies to communicatiopns, electricity , water, roads ,postal service railways and airlines. etc.
Virgin never was or never will be a Australian Asset. Cast your memory back to Holden and the subsidy and the 2.5billion given to keep it going...good money gone this will be the same. Governments govern they dont run businesses. And surprising as it is, airlines do fly to other states and countries.
So we need an Australian owned and operated airline???? That way we don't prop up someone else with tax payers money.
Equity, that’s an interesting notion.
This is a very complicated situation we find ourselves in. Should we nationalize Virgin completely ? Should we buy equity in the company and hope to sell it back to the market in a few years time? Should we do nothing and let it die a natural death? Should we let the Chinese Vultures get involved?