Virgin Australia has gone into administration. This isn't the same as "liquidation" which is the out-and-out breaking up of a company that's gone bust, with the profitable parts (if any) being sold off.
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Virgin Australia isn't at that stage. It's insolvent, meaning it may not be able to pay its debts, including to its employees. But it's for the administrators - in this case the global accountancy firm of Deloitte - to work out what can be salvaged and how the company might be restructured.
The company will keep flying while a longer-term solution is sought, maybe a buyer, maybe selling off unlucrative parts.
But maybe the end: "liquidation" - though not quite yet.
So is this the beginning of the end?
It may be.
But aviation experts feel that the airline may well survive, albeit in a reduced form.
They compare it favourably with the collapse of Ansett Australia which went into administration in 2001 and then the final liquidation a year later.
But Virgin Australia is better placed than Ansett, according to Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects.
It has a more modern and better configured fleet of aircraft - Ansett had many different types of aircraft which meant higher costs in maintenance. It was owned by Air New Zealand which, he says, had under-invested.
Virgin Australia is owned by a raft of foreign entities, Etihad and Singapore Airlines, and a Chinese billionaire among them, and they have invested.
So that's good news?
It's less bad news than it might have been.
While Virgin Australia keeps flying, the administrators in the pilot seat will want to honour existing agreements in order to keep good will towards the airline.
Virgin Australia gift vouchers, for example, are unlikely to be voided - though using them will be difficult because the service has been so cut back.
Will I get my money back if my flight gets cancelled?
You should get a voucher for a flight in the future but getting cash will be a harder job - you may need to read a lot of small print.
Choice, the consumer advocacy group, says: "Read your airline conditions of carriage to find out if you're eligible."
Choice's expert, Jodi Bird, says: "In fact, be prepared to quote these conditions back to the airline because they won't always offer you a refund if you don't ask."
Another expert, Neil Hansford of Strategic Aviation Solutions, recommends another tactic: if you paid by credit card, start a dispute. Go to Visa or MasterCard or whoever and say you paid for something (the flight) but the seller never provided it.
Be patient. Life may be too short.
Can I still use points?
Virgin's air-miles scheme, Velocity Frequent Flyer, is a separate company from the airline and it's not in administration.
Points schemes are often very profitable - there was a time when the Qantas scheme was actually worth more than the airline!
The administrator of Virgin Australia, Vaughan Strawbridge from Deloitte, said: "Those points for those members are preserved. They have not been lost."
But there's a catch. The Velocity frequent flyer website says, "We've made the difficult decision to pause all redemptions for an initial period of four weeks, effective immediately. This means our members won't be able to redeem their Points for rewards during the pause."