Snigs,
You are quite right.
September 11th changed the world and our industry, but I don't think permanently. You must remember, before Sept. 11th there was huge growth in the market with GO, easyJet and Ryanair, all fairly young airlines in terms of their growth, and all recruiting and training people onto 737's. After Sep 11, there was a glut of qualified pilots in the marketplace. With the fast growing sectors now only taking type-rated pilots, there was huge pressure to gain a type rating as a means to gain employment. This continues even and now will do for quite some time
The costs and risks to airlines of recruiting non-type rated pilots are very high these days. It's a fact of life. Individuals are left with the choice of biding their time, or taking the plunge. The industry doesn't owe anyone a living, but they owe the banks a lot.
But remember, and Tony has repeated it often enough, there are no guarantees with any of it.
H