In a word, probably no.
All of the previous comments cover my thoughts, besides the oil problems, well explained by KAG we have the problem that people are still willing to pay nearly 100K to get into the FO seat, meaning that the airlines can throw out ridiculous T & C's and 'daddy's little boys' can afford to pay for their HUGE loan, on a salary less than many jobs that require little training and on a non-permanent contract.
This idea is exploited (clever business man) completely by companies like eagle jet, Pay to fly? Now for me, this seems absolutely ridiculous. Some of you may say ' if you have the money why not?' Well i can agree with that but this post is about how viable it is for people, and unless you have £80 k for intergrated training, £20k for a TR, and $30k for 500 hours on type it seems almost impossible.
The fact
>>most<< airlines are asking for 1500 TT with 500 on type proves that the 'pilot shortage' forecasted for the last 30 years really doesnt exist at the moment, and will not in the near future.
Im not a pesimist before people acuse me of that, there is nothing i enjoy more than flying, it has always been a dream of mine to fly commercialy but i had to take a step back, do i take the plunge and train ? PERSONALLY, i found the answer to be no, i had the money to train, but i planned budgets extensively and looking at average wages, job availability and other factors, and i found that it would take me realisticly around 10-15 years to live a good life, with a fair disposable income. It was hit home for me when i looked into becoming an air traffic control officer, it lead me to the fact that ( this is based on no expendature besides paying back my training loan) i would have earnt the same amount of money in 20 years as a pilot as i did in only 6 years as an atco, this is based on the payment back of my loan and accounting for wages and living expenses.
Now for me, that only leads to one thing, ATCO. I'm not in it for the money i simply love flying but i didnt want live a
life, having no money to spend on myself, girlfriends, houses, family e.t.c.
This will not stop many people that want to become pilots, I understand the dream, i was at the point. I was extrememly upset when i realised it just wasn't worth it. I tried to kid myself, did all my research spoke to many people, airlines, and F.T.O's. I even passed the entrance exams for OAA and CTC but it just wasn't viable.
Im not trying to tell you not to train, but be serious about the situation, Dreams can be very powerful and one such as this may find you in thousands of pounds of debt and a rather 'interesting' situatuion. I get the flying bug, i have it. But looking at it, im going to keep flying as a hobby, rather than a profession.