There is so much speculation about where the world economy is going over the short and long term. One thing is definite and that is no one really knows, everyone has their educated or un-educated opinion as it may be but the only sure thing is things will not stay the same! Interesting that flybe's breakeven point is $176 a barrel. Perhaps the medium term solution for aviation in Europe is turbo props! From my reading it seems the summer is always a slow time for recruitment, it will be very interesting to see what happens in October/November when a lot of airlines will start thinking about pilot requirement for the next year. I'm the first person to look at the negative side of something I'll admit, however I don't believe the industry will collapse. I am fairly sure that capacity will be reduced within the US and EU airlines and a fair few smaller airlines will go bankrupt or merge with larger carriers.
I think the bigger issue than just the price of oil is the energy demands and supplies of the world. There needs to be some decisions made very soon, about where we are going to get our power from for the next 30 - 50 years. In Britain, our nuclear plants are coming to the end of their lifespan and I for one support the building of new ones. I believe the price of Oil will go down eventually, look at the dot com bubble in the 90's and the housing market. Massive unsustainable growth that eventually goes poop.