Stillalbatross:
The CEO is responsible to the board who are responsible to the shareholders. They obviously back him and his actions, I would be curious to see how a take over by private equity would earn everyone better terms and conditions. More likely that they would load the company with debt, lean the operation out and flog all they can to get the debt levels down. None of that points to better options than what QF pays now.
Once the company is private, it's profitability is not required to be disclosed. A privatised Qantas could screw the traveling public for all its worth. There would also be enough to buy off the unions as well. This has been done many times before.