U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 3.4 percent more workers in January 2008 than in January 2007, the 12th consecutive increase in full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the programmed passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today (Table 2). FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

The six network carriers all added FTEs from January 2007 to January 2008 (Table 9). All of the low-cost carriers except ATA Airlines (Table 12), and regional carriers American Eagle Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, ExpressJet Airlines, Horizon Air, Pinnacle Airlines, Mesaba Airlines, Executive Airlines, Republic Airlines, Trans States, Shuttle America and Go Jet Airlines (Table 15) increased their FTEs compared to last year.

Scheduled traveler 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 six network carriers working 249,027 FTEs in January, 59.6 percent of the passenger airline total, while low-cost carriers employed 22.8 percent and regional carriers employed 14.6 percent (Table 4).

American Airlines employed the most FTEs in January 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 (Table 6).

America West Airlines and US Airways now operate under a single certificate. Joint reporting began with October 2007 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 prior numbers are listed separately as a low-cost carrier.

The merged airline, which is listed in the low-cost category, reported 32,674 FTEs for January 2008. In January 2007, US Airways reported 19,528 FTEs in the network category and America West reported 12,435 FTEs in the low-cost category for a total of 31,963.

Network Airlines

FTEs at the six remaining network carriers, not including US Airways in previous years, increased 2.7 percent in January 2008 compared to January 2007, the ninth consecutive monthly gain from the same month of the prior year. Prior to an increase in May, the network group had reduced FTEs from the previous year every month since September 2001 (Table 7).

All the network carriers increased FTEs from January 2007 to January 2008. The year-to-year increases were Delta Air Lines 7.9 percent, Alaska Airlines 5.6 percent, Continental Airlines 3.8 percent, United Airlines 0.9 percent, American 0.8 percent, and Northwest Airlines 0.4 percent (Table 9).

FTEs at five network carriers declined during the four years from January 2004 to January 2008. The exemption was Continental with a 5.4 percent increase (Table 8). The biggest percentage decline was at Northwest, down 23.4 percent, a reduction of 8,920 FTEs, followed by Delta at 17.7 percent. The other FTE decreases during that time were United, down 10.4 percent; American, down 7.5 percent; and Alaska, down 0.3 percent (Table 9).

Low-Cost Airlines

Low-cost carrier FTEs in January continued the 16-month trend of increasing from the same month of the previous year (Tables 10, 11). The trend continued even without combining US Airways' numbers, which were listed in previous months in the network airline category, with America West's numbers for January.

All the low-cost carriers had FTE increases from January 2007 to January 2008 except ATA, down 7.7 percent. Frontier Airlines reported an increase of 16.0 percent (Table 12).

Employment data 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 2004 and 2005 for consistency.

Low-cost carriers are those that the trade recognizes as operating under a low-cost business model, with lower infrastructure costs and higher productivity. Two new low-cost carriers, SkyBus Airlines and Virgin America, began reporting employment data in August. SkyBus reported 431 FTEs in January and Virgin America failed to report its employment data (Table 12).

Regional Airlines

Regional carrier FTEs were up 3.7 percent in January 2008 compared to January 2007 (Table 13).

Republic and Mesaba reported the largest increases in the group. Republic employed 97.2 percent more FTEs in January 2008 than January 2007, while Mesaba employed 19.4 percent more (Table 15).

Regional carrier FTEs rose from 55,797 in January 2005 to 61,104 in January 2008, an increase of 9.5 percent (Table 14).

The 12 regional carriers reporting employment data in both 2004 and 2008 employed 17.4 percent more FTEs in January 2008 than in January 2004. Of that group, Pinnacle reported the biggest gain, 81.8 percent, followed by SkyWest at 79.5 percent and ExpressJet at 31.6 percent. Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Air Wisconsin Airlines, Mesa Airlines and Executive Airlines reported fewer FTEs in January 2008 than January 2004 (Table 15).

Regional carrier Compass Airlines began reporting employment data in November. Compass reported 384 FTEs in January (Table 12).

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