26point2: That's quite a good summary. I fly for a private owner and live with the "what if" question as well, but seeing how everywhere is like that now I prefer having the odd day off down-route and not work my **s of because my employer is selling flights at shoestring margins.
Being able to leave an airport other than homebase occationally makes me feel I'm still traveling for a living, and not just monitoring a hunk of metal drilling a hole in the sky
Sorry to get off topic - I don't think the "what if the owner sells" scenario is such a major downside. Specially if you want to stay in Corporate it's hard to build any better job security these days anyway. NJE at least tried, but even they were not immune to a downturn and had to park a few airplanes and pilots.