There will always be the doomsday people, screaming that the sky is falling. Yes the industry is facing some hard times but this is a great time to get into a career if its what you want to do. The time to train is not when airlines are hiring but when they are not. There is nothing worse than hearing about all these opportunities when you aren't qualified for them. There are some great opportunities to make 40k + as a CFI and you can build your hours there while waiting for the regional that you want to open up their hiring again. The debt that you incur is sizable, but if its what you want to do, its a small price to pay for a great job. As for ATP, I did my flight training there. The program is not for everyone. The pace is very fast and a lot of students can't pick up the skills in the short amount of flight time that they alot per rating (8 hours for multi, 25 hours for instrument, 4 hours for commercial, 8 hours for CFI, 2 hours for CFII). My CFI class started with 10 students and only myself and one other passed their initial, the rest were left trying to figure out how to proceed outside of ATP. If you feel confident in your skills and can self pace yourself you should be fine, but if not, I would go somewhere else.