VA has never expressed any interest in flying to Europe with its own metal. Just like all European carriers except BA see no value in flying to AU with their metal, the business case for VA doing it makes no sense.
Other than "our local market is drying up THANKS to QF's own international offerings and single ticket bookings, so we'll either need the aggressively cheaper domestic product or we'll have to step up into the big leagues"...
Even QF doesn't fly into Europe except LHR using its own metal. That is the whole reason behind the EK alliance as well as codeshares through SIN with airlines like KL. It is very hard to make money, the crewing costs are excessive and you will never get the range of destinations that a good hubbing arrangement in Asia or the Middle East offers. There is no money to be made heading to Europe anyway; fares between Europe and Australia have basically flatlined for 20 years which means, in real terms, they have dropped dramatically.
Asian and Middle East carrier have a natural advantage through their well located hubs that AU or EU carriers cannot overcome.
You're joking. We have threads dedicated to the downturn and downfall of the ME3 discussing why this is materially NOT the case thanks to the 787, A350, and A330 NEO. Direct flight bypass is already hurting Emirates' business in AU and NZ, and it'll only get worse once the Trent 1000 issues get solved.
None of the planes you cite can currently offer direct services from the Australian east cost to western Europe. QF are still trying to make the maths work on Sunrise and that will rely on a premium heavy concept with lots of existing Y pax moving over to other airlines or one-stop services. Most travel from Australia to Europe is on ME and Asian airlines. The only direct flight bypass you talk of is one flight per day from PER to LHR which two years after introduction no other airline has sought to bother trying to compete with.
Irrelevant. All but 1 of the major London airports can handle the 787/A350/A330. IF VA ever wanted to target London, they'd be fine. They can get 5th Freedom through Singapore worst case. But their main prize is the Chinese market, which Qantas has skillfully been locking them out of.
If you want to go to London, you need rights to LHR. Sure LGW can take you but ask airlines like GA and CI how hard it is to make London work when you haven't got a ticket to the main dance.
What possible benefit would VA create for itself by flying to London through SIN? There are multiple services per day already plying the route, over half of which VA already codeshares on.
QF has not locked VA out of the China market; the issue is the Chinese airlines have a much lower cost base and a much better selling network in China. It is very hard to beat them particularly as the routes are dominated with Chinese coming to AU, the numbers of Australians travelling the other way is much less.
You're joking. A) The 77Ws are only 70% full on 9-abreast guzzlers. B) They have expressed enormous interests in the AU-China market, for which they need much better offerings at lower prices than they currently have. C) VA is bleeding money thanks to high fuel prices on their inefficient planes.
I don't know that I'd call a 77W a gas guzzler; it uses more fuel/seat than a 789 maybe but the cost of ownership between a 10 year old 777 and a new 789 probably favours the former.
Have they expressed enormous interest in China? They've talked about it but I think for the reasons I mentioned above they don't believe they can get their costs under the Chinese carriers.
Once again, the A332 and 77W are a long way from inefficient planes. 787s and A350s use less fuel but that is only one part of the cost of ownership. It is the same reason why QF hasn't replaced all of their A330s with 787s; the A330s are currently the better business proposition. Aircraft are not iPhones; you don't replace them just because a newer shinier model has come onto the market.
You mention fuel which has spiked but it is still a long way under where it was a few years ago. The lack of a secondhand market for existing widebodies and difficulty in making the sums work on newer planes is why lots of airlines are holding onto their existing widebody fleets and why sales of the 77X, A35K and 78J have been so sluggish. A further spike in fuel prices may change the equation but such a spike would probably be accompanied by an economic downturn with the corresponding drop in demand again mucking up the maths.