Aventhusiast
The second thread you have quoted is a bit of a hysteria fest. Can I say that as someone who
actually is working here at FR that no one has been laid off. Not one. Ryanair would like people to go on unpaid leave over the winter as they are cutting some seasonal capacity. I was in the simulator centre very recently and they are still conducting interviews. That's the short factual version
Unfortunately as soon as the name of our company is mentioned in any topic on PPRuNe mass hysteria breaks out, usually having no basis in things as frivolous as facts !
Also don't forget that the US airlines were laying off a kitrillion people after 9/11 too, but FR and EZY continued expansion, rapidly in the case of FR. Although we live in an international (I F%@%in' hate that Global world) job market, and the effects of Globalization (Damn, can't escape it) are clear to see with the subprime crisis/credit crunch, don't always make the mistakes of comparing what's happening to the US airline industry to what is happening in Europe. The US industry seems to have been a basket case for a long time, some of them weren't even making money when oil was
$10 a barrel! You have to ask yourself if it was really the oil price that has triggered these cuts or a more tangled web of reasons.....
Now.
Will the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride into town if the Oil price continues to rise. Possibly, Probably! Will you get run over by a bus crossing the street tomorrow?, possibly. No one knows the answers if they were being honest. There ARE some very dark clouds on the horizon right now in this industry, the world may change forever. Or it may not. It may be a cycle, and a very serious one, just like the 2-3 years after 9/11 were.
I do know as someone who started their training not so long after 9/11, when I was being told the industry was irreparably damaged, and I could never possibly hope to get a job ever again, that by the time I was finished I found myself in a market as awash with employment as one could ever hope to find given the supply and demand economics of the fATPL job market.
To quote Harry: The question is, do you feel lucky? Well do ya!?, Punk!
On a final note:
This is an especialy dangerous time to burden yourself with debt, and never, ever, pay up front for training. It's spectacularly unpretty when it goes wrong