THE long-expected collapse of the heavily indebted Virgin Australia airline might be the biggest corporate casualty, so far, of the coronavirus crisis, but it will not be the only big domino to fall as the global economic shutdown shows that the old saying - "money makes the world go round" - is more grimly true than ever.
Having failed in its various attempts to secure emergency funding, Australia's second biggest airline has gone into voluntary administration under insolvency specialists Deloitte.
Ordinarily, the administrators of such a potentially lucrative business would soon find buyers circling the wagons.
But these are no ordinary times.
CORONAVIRUS NATIONALLY:
- Third death in Newmarch NSW aged care cluster
- National coronavirus summary
- PM Morrison and pandemic predictor Bill Gates on the phone
- Cases trailing off in Tasmanian outbreak
- Fears return to elective surgery will put hospitals at risk
Virgin's four 20 per cent shareholders - Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines and two Chinese companies - have been unwilling or unable to recapitalise their investments, while Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson is offering his Caribbean home as collateral as he goes cap in hand to the UK government for £500 million ($980 million) bailout of Virgin Atlantic.
It is impossible to accurately predict when international air-travel may resume, making for an increasingly bleak future for even the best-capitalised airlines, and the businesses and employees that rely on them.
Travel agency Flight Centre was one of the first big Australian enterprises to stand down staff when it shut 100 stores and laid off 6000 people in March.
Qantas has stood down some two-thirds of its 30,000-strong workforce, and Virgin Australia 8000 of 10,000 employees.
CORONAVIRUS GLOBALLY:
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Singapore locked down until June 1
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Indonesia bans Ramadan exodus
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US reopening under way
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Brazilian president wants lockdown to end
- Returning travellers bring virus back to regional China
With Australia having effectively shut its borders to anyone bar returning citizens - and with interstate travel also heavily restricted - the nation's airports are all but surplus to requirements at the moment.
Newcastle Airport's chief executive Peter Cock has seen Virgin, Jetstar, QantasLink and Regional Express shutter their services, with only FlyPelican's 19-seaters - and the RAAF's jets - on the Williamtown runway.
Around the world, an estimated 16,000 passenger jets - or more than 60 per cent of the global fleet - are on the ground, many of them parked en masse in dry inland areas to minimise their deterioration, and needing extensive regular maintenance if they are to fly again.
With so many costs, and so much in losses to absorb, the air-travel bargains of the years before coronavirus put us all in a tailspin may never be repeated.
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