Correct, until a couple of years ago, VA was pretty much owner by Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Etihad each having about 22%. Richard Branson's Virgin Group had less than 10% and the rest was publicly held by mostly retail investors. Then Air NZ sold their shares to a Chinese consortium.

I think they have avoided any handouts to accelerate(Or at least not delay) a sale. Now that there is new ownership I expect they will come to the table.

Not to pass judgement on the wisdom of this strategy either way, but this decade's Liberal government hasn't been particularly open to saving/subsidising foreign owned businesses just because they maintain a national industry. Otherwise GM and Ford would still have factories here.