February marked the highest monthly total for full-time U.S. passenger airline employment since July 2005, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
The total number of U.S. passenger airline employees reached 420,824 in February, up 4.2 percent from February 2016. It was also recognized as the 40th consecutive month that full-time equivalent (FTE) employment exceeded the same month of the previous year.
The number of FTEs rose 0.7 percent from January to February, BTS said.
Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, American Airlines, and Delta Airlines – the four network airlines that collectively employ more than 65 percent of scheduled passenger airline FTEs – reported a 2.4 percent year-over-year increase. The network airline FTE month-to-month increase rose 0.4 percent from January to February.
The six low-cost carriers – Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, and Virgin America – reported 9.4 percent more FTEs in February 2017 over February of last year.
Of the 11 regional carriers that reported a 4.5 percent FTE increase, eight regional airlines — Endeavor Air, Compass Airlines, PSA Airlines, GoJet Airlines, Mesa Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, Envoy Air, and Horizon Air – increased FTEs from February 2016.
According to the report, American Airlines employed the most FTEs in February at 99,845 among the network airlines; Southwest employed the most FTEs at 54, 551 among low-cost airlines; and Envoy Air employed the most FTEs at 11, 171 among regional airlines.
The report was compiled from required monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of April 10.