The economy could improve like crazy (which it won't) and VX would still be in big trouble. It doesn't know who it is or what it wants to be. It flies mainly to business centers but doesn't have the frequencies or network to win business travelers. It wastes money testing out leisure destinations that will never pay off because the yields are too thin. It has the best inflight products in the country but touches off insane, stupid sub-$100 fare wars up and down the west coast. It prices transcons at 2X to 3X the competition, though, giving legacy loyalists no incentive to sample VX. It leverages the Virgin brand which drives great loyalty worldwide but its own loyalty program is crap - stingy and pointless. It's too thin a system to be most peoples' primary airline, but they don't have the funds to expand. When they enter a new city they do it so quietly most people don't even notice (unlike Southwest, which storms into a new station like they're taking Omaha Beach).

It's tragic how VX has lost all this money with nothing to show for it. A great product and brand that have been very, very, very badly managed.