It's a dreadful situation to be in for employees, and it's potentially understandable that they'd hope against hope that what he might be saying would be true.
However, Virgin Atlantic will push for a government bailout shortly, and almost certainly won't get it. Delta's wishes can't be ignored, and without Delta there is almost no hope of Virgin Atlantic ever having a sustainable future. Whatever Sir Richard says, the way that the industry is going is consolidation. Virgin Atlantic has never been profitable in any meaningful way; historically they've ridden things out by filling 'planes up with Virgin Holidays customers and managed the accounting internally.
Anything to keep the brand aloft.
Singapore Airlines tried for years to sell their 49% until Delta finally stepped up. Singapore realised quite soon that the brand is not what Sir Richard believes that it is.
When Alaska Airlines bought Virgin America, they understood enough about their own operations that they could proceed to erase the Virgin brand from the acquired business without undue concern.
When the Virgin brand was removed from the East Coast railway franchise, passengers didn't flee as the glamour of the brand was removed from their train ride.
Virgin is everything to Sir Richard, but it really isn't much in terms of any industry and certainly any nation.
He had the opportunity to create something really credible and powerful as a second force in UK aviation had he combined with Sir Michael Bishop at British Midland, but he didn't - and then maintained his default position of carping. The industry always felt that the egos were too large, and also that some of Sir Richard's underlying personality traits were incompatible with Sir Michael's position.
Ultimately, Sir Richard is a great self-publicist and plays the role of hard done-by underdog in a sweater with unwavering dedication, but I personally don't even believe that he's very good at branding, a stake through the heart to him as that suggestion would be.
Brands aren't universally-versatile; they usually have very defined applications and the power of them is maintaining focus on the product or service. Sir Richard focuses on the brand and himself, and has been personally very successful - but I'd posit that few Virgin branded businesses will outlive him. Possibly the UK media businesses being the only ones that might cling on to the name.
A lot is speculation, of course, but the vital signs for Virgin Atlantic are not considered by many (if any) that I talk to in the industry to be good.
