Dixon and co. certainly weren't the losers in this debacle. After talking it up, a paltry purchase of shares didn't give enough grunt to gather support from concerned institutions as they expected.
Had they received support, it would have opened the door to an even bigger trough in which to put the snouts.
They now pocket tidy little sums and turn to the next project.
Qantas survives as there's no significant or lasting damage from this, the share price is still up and Joyce and co.get on with "business".
The losers however, are the long suffering shareholders, who still won't see a dividend for years and the staff who will continue to be under a considerable amount of duress for some time to come.