Having being a " Mum & Dad" shareholder since the float of the company in the early 2000's, regrettably the financial outlook has never really improved.
Most of the VA fan boys will disagree with me, but I don't believe taking the airline more " upmarket" has been benefited the company financially.
Had the company continued to Operate solely as a LCC , this model should have provided stronger returns to shareholders, for the best part of the last few years at least without the costs involved of the so called "frills" that supposedly exist today.
VA is certainly a different airline to the old DJ days, and Yes, VA have given QF a rocket up their ( you know what) for improving both the domestic and long-haul business class product offering, which most of us here have benefited from.
Taking over TT has proven to be financially a good decision, and no doubt VA has improved consumers perceptions of what was once an embarrassment of an airline, although I'm dumbfounded that VA has not sought to expand the airline. TT is ripe for expansion, particularly on international leisure routes across the Tasman, Asia and the Pacific where the parent airline has enjoyed only limited success at best.
Having the key Large shareholders of the other airlines onboard has no doubt kept VA going financially, although the rivers of free flowing cash from some of them has begun to disepate, as to has the strategy.
