BTS 32-05
Contact: Dave Smallen, Tel.: (202) 366-5568
Tuesday, July 19, 2005

BTS Releases May Passenger Airline Employment Data;
May 2005 Employment Down 3.2 Percent from May 2004

U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed a total of 452,250 workers in May 2005, 3.2 percent fewer than in May 2004, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today (Table 1).

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the seven network carriers employed 304,665 total full-time and part-time workers -6.3 percent fewer workers in May 2005 than a year earlier (Table 2). The low-cost carriers reported 74,185 total employees, 0.8 percent fewer than May 2004 (Table 3); and the regional carriers reported 60,490 total employees, 10.9 percent more than the previous year (Table 4).

May was the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines in airline employment levels for the scheduled passenger carriers since BTS began tracking the numbers. But part-time employee numbers continued to grow with a 1.2 percent increase in May.

Many regional carriers were not required to report employment numbers before 2003, so year-to-year comparisons involving regional carriers as a group, or the full industry, are not appropriate for earlier years. BTS is providing pre-2003 comparisons for network and low-cost carriers, as well as pre-2003 numbers for individual regional carriers that were required to report in earlier years.

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 2004 statistics do not include employment data for one regional airline that was not required to report for that year – PSA Airlines.

Numbers 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 2003, 2004 and 2005. This change reflects that carrier’s current business model as a low-cost operator.

Using Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTE) calculations, employment at network carriers in May dropped 34.2 percent from 2001 to 2005. The biggest declines were at US Airways, down 50.3 percent; and United Airlines, down 42.7 percent (Table 5). In FTE calculations, part-time workers are counted as one-half of a full-time employee.

The seven low-cost carriers that were required to report employment data in 2001 and 2005 employed 0.5 percent more FTEs in May 2005 than in May 2001 (Table 6).

The eight regional carriers that were required to report employment data in 2001 and 2005 employed 14.8 percent more FTEs in May 2005 than in May 2001. Of that group, only Horizon Air reported fewer FTE employees in May 2005 than May 2001 (Table 7).

In this release, Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4 use total numbers for full-time and part-time employees, while employee numbers in Tables 5, 6, 7 and 8 show FTEs.

The 3.4 percent drop in FTE’s from May 2004 to May 2005 was the largest year-to-year drop in scheduled passenger airline employment in the six months that these numbers have been compiled for these airline groups (Table 8). The year-over-year employment numbers have dropped each consecutive month since BTS began publishing these data effective with December 2004 results.

Network carriers operate a significant portion of their flights using at least one hub where connections are made for flights to down-line destinations or spoke cities. Low-cost carriers are those that the industry generally recognizes as operating under a low-cost business model with fewer infrastructure costs.

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

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

Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of July 8.

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 June airline employment data for Aug. 16.

Table 1: Passenger Airline Employment, May 2004-2005

	May 2004	May 2005	Pct. Change 2004-2005
Total (37)
Total	466,991	452,250	-3.2
Full-time	411,915	396,536	-3.7
Part-time	55,076	55,715	1.2
Network Carriers (7)*
Total	325,097	304,665	-6.3
Full-time	286,939	266,945	-7.0
Part-time	38,158	37,720	-1.1
Low Cost Carriers (8)
Total	74,792	74,185	-0.8
Full-time	67,745	66,881	-1.3
Part-time	7,047	7,304	3.6
Regional Carriers (13)**
Total	54,568	60,490	10.9
Full-time	48,020	53,257	10.9
Part-time	6,548	7,233	10.5
Other Carriers (9)***
Total	12,534	12,910	3.0
Full-time	9,211	9,453	2.6
Part-time	3,323	3,457	4.0