Less than three months ago the future of Virgin Australia was looking grim as COVID-19 had forced the airline to ground all of its operations and permanently axe its New Zealand operations.
Then, as the company entered into voluntary administration, it was revealed the airline was carrying excess baggage of AU$7 billion owed to creditors.
Deloitte was appointed to either seek out a potential buyer or somehow deal to the billions of dollars in debt the company found itself in.
Despite the deep financial hole Virgin Australia needed to climb out of and some commentators calling it "unsaveable", the administrators soon found themselves with more than 20 potential new owners putting offers on the table.
Deloitte has confirmed the final two companies whose offers have been considered viable.
Bain Capital:
These investors were involved in the launch of Jet.com, Lime, LinkedIn, SurveyMonkey and owns iHeartRadio. It's also the majority owner of the new Virgin Voyages cruise line, also set up by Sir Richard Branson.
Cyrus Capital Partners:
Has shares in IntelSat and Branson's Virgin America. It was also one of the key investors in FlyBe, an airline in the UK which recently closed down due to financial difficulties.
Virgin Australia is said to have remained an attractive option to potential investors due to the duopoly it had with Qantas in the Australian domestic market.
Bain and Cyprus have a further 10 days to finalise their offers before any further decisions will be made.
