The Virgin-Qantas dogfight gets personal Qantas has called on the government to examine a 'virtual takeover' of Virgin Australia by foreign airlines. VIRGIN Australia has raised the stakes in the battle of the skies, declaring yesterday it was seeking legal advice about whether it has grounds to sue Qantas boss Alan Joyce. Chairman Neil Chatfield (pictured) used the company's annual general meeting in Brisbane yesterday to up the ante in the ongoing war of words, hitting out at what he said was an "orchestrated media campaign" against Virgin's $350 million capital raising. "While I am not going to waste any more of our shareholders' time today by giving their false accusations further air time, let me assure you that we have instructed legal advisors to act for us in dealing with this matter," Mr Chatfield said. In a memo exclusively obtained by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Joyce told employees: "After all the hard work we have put in over the past five years - and all the work by the thousands of Qantas people over 93 years of history - I am not sitting by while the future of Australia's Qantas is snatched away." Rejecting Qantas's claims, Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti told shareholders the "false allegations by our major competitor" had misrepresented his airline's moves to develop its business. I think what is important is that we are a serious company, run by serious people with a serious board. For anyone to think we'd run the company deliberately at a loss is staggering," he said. Mr Joyce met with Transport Minister Warren Truss in Canberra yesterday as a petition set up by the airline reached more than 13,000 signatures. Mr Joyce also met with senior Labor figures. Qantas was expected to request a change of foreign investment board review rules or to the rules about whether airlines with large foreign ownership, such as Virgin, could continue to be Australian flagged carriers. Being an Australian flagged carrier brings substantial business benefits. The role of the Foreign Investment Review Board was discussed at the meetings. Virgin is raising major capital from its foreign owners, Air New Zealand, Etihad and Singapore Airlines. Virgin Airlines chairman Neil Chatfield.