Smallest Year-Over-Year Increase Since March 2007
US scheduled passenger airlines
employed 1.0 percent more workers in April 2008 than in April 2007,
the 15th consecutive increase in full-time equivalent employee
(FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same
month of the previous year... but the smallest year-to-year
increase since March 2007, the US Department of
Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
reported Tuesday.
That could be a sign cutbacks to employee ranks and fleet
capacity among nearly all US airlines are starting to take their
toll on the BTS numbers. FTE calculations count two part-time
employees as one full-time employee.
The seven network carriers -- except American Airlines -- added
FTEs from April 2007 to April 2008. All of the currently reporting
low-cost carriers and regional carriers American Eagle Airlines,
SkyWest Airlines, Horizon Air, Pinnacle Airlines, Mesaba Airlines,
Executive Airlines, Air Wisconsin Airlines, Shuttle America 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 seven network carriers employed 283,684 FTEs in April, 68.5
percent of the passenger airline total, while low-cost carriers
employed 14.8 percent and regional carriers employed 14.5 percent.
American Airlines employed the most FTEs in April among the network
carriers, Southwest Airlines employed the most among low-cost
carriers, and American Eagle employed the most among regional
carriers. Seven of the top 10 employers in the industry are network
carriers.
All the network carriers except American Airlines increased FTEs
from April 2007 to April 2008. The year-to-year increases were US
Airways 67.5 percent, Delta Air Lines 6.3 percent, Alaska Airlines
6.3 percent, Continental Airlines 3.0 percent, Northwest Airlines
1.0 percent and United Airlines 1.6 percent. American’s
year-to-year employment decline was 0.2 percent.
All carriers remaining in the low-cost group for April 2008 had
FTE increases from April 2007, except for US Airways. Spirit
Airlines reported an increase of 14.9 percent. ATA Airlines, which
reported 2,407 FTEs in April 2007, stopped operating on April 3 and
ceased reporting employment data effective in March.
Regional carrier FTEs were down 0.2 percent in April 2008
compared to April 2007, with Republic and Mesaba reporting the
largest increases in the group. Republic employed 60.4 percent more
FTEs in April 2008 than April 2007, while Mesaba employed 19.6
percent more.
Regional carrier FTEs rose from 56,574 in April 2005 to 60,027
in April 2008, an increase of 6.1 percent.