Hi
I'm basically in a similar position to yourself. I'm wanting to start my ATPL ground school work some time this year, even though finacing it will proberly is yet to be sorted, but once done; as you say with an expected war and the airline industry being in the not best of health at the moment, would one expect things to pick up in the near future?
ATPL etc takes a while to complete, and "hopefully" the industry will be in better health at the end of it.
I've either got the choice of doing this ground school at a college or otherwise maybe going to do a course (not a long course e.g. 2-3yrs @ uni) on something completely different but where some other strong abilities lye ie. computer design etc.. .. just some thing to do during the mean time while the airline industry picks up.
I'll proberly resort to ATPL @ the moment, but i'll see how things go. I'm just finishing off my PPL and abit of hour building seems the most sensable thing to do.
Cheers