Which simply means VA will pick up zero corporate travel with that connection mentioned.
Thats probably a pretty good point often overlooked. For Virgin to capture the corporate market with big international clients and Australian based multinationals (think about Rio Tinto, BHP, 4 major banks, Macquarie Bank, Wesfarmers, Telstra etc) I reckon at a minimum - they need to offer sensible international timings and frequencies and partners to the following destinations:
LHR - yes maybe via EY and/or SQ but as you outlined the VS connections are stupid in one direction.
LAX and or SFO - covered well by DL and VAi metal
NRT or HND - until now a yawning gap in VA's route network codeshare with ANA will improve things
SIN - covered well by SQ anyway so probably not a priority
HKG - current democracy protests have interfered with things so the VA entry timing was unfortunate and too late
CAN and PVG - probably not worth worrying about because covered so well by Chinese carriers but important to get a code share and part of the action
BLR - largest IT industry centre of the largest english speaking economy in the world - why is this ignored?
If I were sitting in the Rio Tinto head office and needed travel solutions between the London and Melbourne head offices then I am the sort of high profit margin client that VA would love to steal off Qantas, but at the moment Virgin is just not in the ball park of sensible contenders in at least one direction.
I realize corporate travel is mostly focused on domestic but if you are choosing a domestic airline partner as your preferred carrier for your staff - and they do have to go overseas - what advantages can VA offer over the incumbent QF?