I'd go the degree route,,,, nuthing bad can come of it, and it is always money in the bag, as you'll have a backup-plan to your airline future... now the industry is not in a good state.... by the time you come out of uni, you'llbe hitting it at hopefully a good time....
some people see it as debt, however i wod bet that they either didnt go to uni or they havnt done anything useful with there degree...!!!!