Scheduled passenger airlines in the United States employed 3.9 percent more workers in June 2016 than they did in the same month the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This increase, reported in a study released last month, continues a steady upward trend and underscores the strength of the airline industry as a source of employment. In fact, June 2016 marked the 32nd consecutive month in which full-time equivalent (FTE) employment exceeded the level from the comparable month of the prior year for U.S. scheduled passenger carriers.
Breaking the numbers down by carrier type, the major network airlines—Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines—recorded a 3.8 percent rise in FTEs in June 2016 compared with June 2015. Low-cost carriers also showed notable growth: Allegiant, Spirit, Frontier, Virgin America, Southwest and JetBlue Airways together reported an 11 percent increase in FTEs over the same period.
Regional carriers contributed to the overall expansion as well, with leading regional operators reporting nearly a 1 percent increase in full-time equivalent employees in June 2016 versus June 2015. Taken together, these figures indicate broad-based employment gains across network, low-cost and regional segments, supporting the view that the U.S. scheduled passenger airline industry was in a healthy employment phase during that period.