Without wanting to encourage anyone too much, I would point out that generally the best time to start (not to finish!) training is in a downturn. That has certainly been the case in the past. At what point in the downturn it makes sense to jump back in is the question. For those with long memories BA did not hire anyone for around ten years in the seventies and eighties. I know a few people who spent twenty years in the right seat, followed by a generation where some people got a wide body command (767) relatively quickly.