BTS Releases December Passenger Airline Employment Data

December 2007 Employment Up 3.7 Percent from December 2006

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 -- U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 3.7 percent more workers in December 2007 than in December 2006, the 11th consecutive increase in full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today (Table 2). FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

The six network carriers all added FTEs from December 2006 to December 2007, the first time since June 2001 that every network airline had year-over-year employment growth in the same month (Table 9). All of the low-cost carriers except ATA Airlines (Table 12), and regional carriers American Eagle Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines, Comair, Horizon Air, Mesaba Airlines, Executive Airlines, Republic Airlines, Trans States, Shuttle America and GoJet Airlines (Table 15) increased their FTEs compared to last year.

Scheduled passenger airlines include network, low-cost, regional and other airlines. Many regional carriers were not required to report employment numbers before 2003, so year-to-year comparisons involving regional carriers, or the total industry, are not available for the years before 2003.

The 419,838 FTEs employed by the industry in December, an increase of 394 FTEs from November, was the most in any month since July 2005 (Table 3). The six network carriers employed 249,972 FTEs in December, 59.5 percent of the passenger airline total, while low-cost carriers employed 22.9 percent and regional carriers employed 14.5 percent (Table 4).

American Airlines employed the most FTEs in December among the network carriers, Southwest Airlines employed the most among low-cost carriers, and SkyWest employed the most among regional carriers. Six of the top 10 employers in the industry are network carriers (Table 6).

America West Airlines and US Airways are now operating under a single certificate and began reporting jointly with October data. The combined airline’s employment numbers are included with the low-cost carriers while US Airways’ previous numbers remain with network carriers and America West’s previous numbers are listed separately as a low-cost carrier.

The merged airline, which is listed in the low-cost category, reported 32,707 FTEs for December 2007. In December 2006, US Airways reported 19,422 FTEs in the network category and America West reported 13,038 FTEs in the low-cost category for a total of 32,460.

Network Airlines

FTEs at the six remaining network carriers, not including US Airways in previous years, increased 2.7 percent in December 2007 compared to December 2006, the eighth consecutive monthly gain from the same month of the previous year. Prior to an increase in May, the network group had reduced FTEs from the previous year every month since September 2001 (Table 7).

All the network carriers increased FTEs from December 2006 to December 2007. The year-to-year increases were Delta Air Lines 8.4 percent, Alaska Airlines 4.7 percent, Continental Airlines 4.5 percent, Northwest Airlines 1.3 percent, American 0.3 percent, and United Airlines 0.2 percent (Table 9).

FTEs at five network carriers declined during the four years from December 2003 to December 2007. The exception was Continental with a 5.4 percent increase (Table 8). The biggest percentage decline was at Northwest, down 21.7 percent, a reduction of 8,331 FTEs, followed by Delta at 17.5 percent. The other FTE decreases during that time were United, down 10.7 percent; American, down 8.1 percent; and Alaska, down 0.6 percent (Table 9).

Low-Cost Airlines

Low-cost carrier FTEs in December continued the 16-month trend of increasing from the same month of the previous year (Tables 10, 11). The trend continued even without combining US Airways’ numbers, which were listed in previous months in the network airline category, with America West’s numbers for December.

All the low-cost carriers had FTE increases from December 2006 to December 2007 except ATA, down 5.5 percent. Frontier Airlines reported an increase of more than 15 percent (Table 12).

Employment data for Independence Air, which changed its business model from a regional to low-cost carrier in mid-2004, have been included with low-cost carriers for 2004 and 2005 for consistency.

Low-cost carriers are those that the industry recognizes as operating under a low-cost business model, with lower infrastructure costs and higher productivity. Two new low-cost carriers, SkyBus Airlines and Virgin America, began reporting employment data in August. SkyBus reported 381 FTEs in December and Virgin America reported 735 FTEs (Table 12).

Regional Airlines

Regional carrier FTEs were up 4.9 percent in December 2007 compared to December 2006 (Table 13).

SkyWest and Go Jet reported the largest increases in the group. SkyWest, with 10,249 FTEs, the most of any regional carrier, employed 16.6 percent more FTEs in December 2007 than December 2006, while Go Jet employed 16.3 percent more (Table 15).

Regional carrier FTEs rose from 55,297 in December 2004 to 61,077 in December 2007, an increase of 4.9 percent (Table 14).

The 10 regional carriers reporting employment data in both 2003 and 2007 employed 18.1 percent more FTEs in December 2007 than in December 2003. Of that group, SkyWest reported the biggest gain, 82.3 percent, followed by ExpressJet at 36.4 percent and American Eagle at 25.4 percent. Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Air Wisconsin Airlines reported fewer FTEs in December 2007 than December 2003 (Table 15).

Regional carrier Compass Airlines began reporting employment data in November. Compass reported 355 FTEs in December (Table 12).

Regional carriers typically provide service from small cities, using primarily regional jets to support the network carriers’ hub and spoke systems.

Reporting Notes

Airlines that operate at least one aircraft with the capacity to carry combined passengers, cargo and fuel of 18,000 pounds – the payload factor – must report monthly employment statistics.

The Other Carrier category generally reflects those airlines that operate within specific niche markets, such as Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines in serving the Hawaiian Islands.

Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of Feb. 12.

Additional airline employment data can be found on the BTS website at

http://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_information/number_of_employees/. BTS has scheduled release of January airline employment data for March 18.

Source: DOT

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