This is a very difficult subject on which to give anyone any advice. No two people's cases are the same. We are all driven by different desires and different circumstances. What is right for one may not be right for another.
All that said, I cannot see any reason to rush into a career of enormous challenge, when you, unlike many others, have a safe alternative to stay in until things get better.
The airline industry is going through a quite unusual setback at the present time. In my opinion, this is exceptional. It is fighting the trends of history. Whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead right now, his epitaph will be that he had very little effect on the Western European-American liberal-democratic ideal, but it is unquestionable that he set back the western commercial aviation industry by at least 3 years. However, not even he can fight history. The future is bright - and it isn't orange.
Look at the overall projections for the aviation industry, and the picture isn't at all bad. Mosr people accept the forecast that by 2015 the world passenger-mile figures will have doubled. Where are those pilots to come from? The Cold War is over. The USAF and the RAF are no longer providing a large wastage rate to be mopped up by the aviation industry. The new generation of airline pilots are you, the wannabes.
This is a historic change. They used to be us, the knackered old fellows who were ex-military. Those people are not around any longer; they're getting too old. The next generation, the military pilots of the 80s and 90s do not leave the USAF and RAF in such great numbers, because, quite simply, post Cold War, there aren't enough of them. For example, between 1989 and 1995, the RAF went down from 90,000 personnel to 50,000. OK, they weren't all pilots, but you get the general trend.
Hang in there, and all you wannabes who want to fly for a living are going to be a very desirable commodity. Not that many people can hack it as an airline pilot. If you can, almost no matter how bad you are, you WILL have a decent living over the next 30 years - starting from, in my guess, about 2004, as long as George Bush doesn't decide to attack Iraq. (Actually, I think Colin Powell's got enough sense to stop him!)
However, in the short term, airlines live or die by their day-to-day cash flow. No matter how great your desire to commit aviation (even as the managing director of a big airline), if more money is going out faster than is coming in on a daily basis, the bean counters will close you down. The shareholders won't stand for it. They want a return for their money.
In these tough times, only the strong will survive - and the accountants won't let them take on any more pilots. But it can't go on for ever. But whilst American tourists won't go on Transatlantic flights, do you really think that it will stop your local plumber or decorator from having his holiday in Malaga or Torremolinos this year? Of course it won't!
Give it time, and the airline industry will recover, and go on to greater strength than it had pre Sep 11 1991. But if I had a son aged 19 and he wanted to be an airline pilot, I'd tell him, "Look, there's no rush. You WILL have an assured career in an enormously competitive market - if you can hack it. But there's no rush to start it immediately. It will be damned difficult for the next 18 months or so, until the industry settles down and we can re-employ all the very well qualified pilots who are temporarily out of work right now. Just wait a year - especially if you've got another string to your bow and you have some surplus cash to spend on flying for a hobby and keeping yourself current."
Spitfire, given your circumstances, stay in the job for another 6 months to a year- well, at least, that's my view. All I ask is that, after this, never accuse Oxford of only being after your money. Otherwise, I'd be telling you to start at once, right away, with any school.
All the best, whatever you decide to do.