Largest Same-Month Increase Since August 2001

Despite clouds looming on the horizon, in the forms of high fuel prices and a slowing economy... domestic airlines continue to show strong signs of resurgence, according to the latest hiring figures from the US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

US scheduled passenger airlines employed 3.7 percent more workers in November 2007 than in November 2006, the 10th consecutive increase in full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year, according to BTS.

That increase was the largest from the same month of the previous year since August 2001. FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

Adding FTEs from November 2006 to November 2007 were network carriers Continental Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines.  In addition, all of the low-cost carriers except ATA Airlines, and regional carriers American Eagle Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines, Comair, Horizon Air, Pinnacle Airlines, Mesaba Airlines, Executive Airlines, Republic Airlines and GoJet Airlines 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 419,444 FTEs employed by the industry in November was the most in any month since July 2005. The six network carriers employed 249,862 FTEs in November, 59.6 percent of the passenger airline total, while low-cost carriers employed 22.9 percent and regional carriers employed 14.6 percent.

American employed the most FTEs in November 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.

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 32,799 FTEs for November 2007. In November 2006, US Airways reported 19,350 FTEs in the network category and America West reported 12,368 FTEs in the low-cost category for a total of 31,718.

A complete breakdown of the BTS findings is available at the FMI link below.

FMI: www.bts.gov