Speaking of the SSP- I recently encountered a guy that does interviews that said the SSP is winding down due to dwindling amounts of applicants. In his words "it's pretty much over." What's going on there?

 

Is it 18 x 8 max?
I'm thinking about buying one before class starts.

 

It's the excuse that "FOs got caught with their pants down" with respect to the SSP being extended to them. Many are scrambling to get their applications in now but it is taking a lot of time for many (don't know why) to get their ducks in a row that the SSP is getting pretty deep down the FO list. Once it hits the most junior eligible the SSP ends. It is not that far yet. I am a 2011 hire with my application in. No calls/email yet and I do not expect it at least for several more months. There are people junior to me eligible as well. So it is not quite over, just more FOs need to get their stuff in or it could be over sooner than we all think.

 

As for captains, it's pretty much done...might be a few stragglers here or there.

 

That pretty much jibes with what he said. Interesting. He implied that they wanted it to be done with, so that may very well be what's going on.

 

I don't know how much 9E wants it done, but it seems from inside looking out it appears Delta does not have any issue with the prospect of it ending and as a result being released from the SSP/Bridge Agreement obligations.

 

I can only speak for myself. I have no desire to go to Delta, so I didn't bother signing up. There's no point of wasting mine or Delta's time. There's also CA and FO's when the SSP is talked about, they would say something like "I'll get to it at some point" seems like they weren't motivated to do it.

 

I don't see the SSP hitting the bottom until every pilot has had their opportunity for the second interview. Every month more pilots become eligible to reinterview. Obviously the numbers get smaller but there are still a few eligible candidates every month.

 

The FO SSP killed it.

 

In March when the list of names were sent to DL, it did go fairly junior. There were very few Captains names sent, roughly 7 CA retry names and 9 first interview CA names, and around 50 FO names. The union put out an email beginning - mid March as a "warning shot" to the pilots that the March list did go very junior, which it did, the most junior pilot in March was about 200 from the bottom of the aprox 1500 pilot seniority list. After the Union email, the participation on the captain side and FO side dramatically increased. The list sent to April saw almost 45 CA names and 30 FO names, whereas the most junior pilot sent in April was between 990-1010 on the 15-02 published seniority list. No idea how the list will turn out in May, but as someone already said, every CA has had an opportunity and any CA that expressed interest was on the April list, so any CA on the May list will have signed up for the SSP after the April list was sent on April 6. If the SSP remains in its current state and the language is not renegotiated to include new hires then I would guess the SSP will be exhausted in late summer early fall.