BTS 55-24

This release is published on a fixed schedule as required by the Office of Management and Budget, and statistics in this release may be revised when inputs to the statistics are corrected or updated. Data on the program page of this website are the most up-to-date and complete.

Note: In June, FedEx Ground and FedEx Services merged with FedEx Express to form Federal Express Corporation. As a result of the merger, carrier FX has experienced a significant increase in employee count, increasing the total number of employees in the industry.

May 2024 Federal Express numbers are 233,739, while Federal Express Corporation June numbers are 432,127.
 

U.S. Airline Total Number of Employees (both Full-Time and Part-Time)

U.S. airline industry (passenger and cargo airlines combined) employment increased to 1,021,761 workers in October 2024, 9,949 (0.98%) more workers than in September 2024 (1,011,812).

U.S. scheduled-service passenger airlines employed 544,705 workers in October 2024, or 54% of the industry-wide total. Passenger airlines gained 1,600 employees in October 2024. American Airlines Inc. led scheduled passenger carriers, adding 1,006 employees; United Air Lines Inc. added 291, and Southwest Airlines Co. added 164.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 472,827 workers in October 2024, or 46% of the industry-wide total. Cargo carriers gained 8,382 employees in October. FedEx, the leading air cargo employer, increased employment by 8,307 jobs.
 

Scheduled passenger airlines gained 1,295 full-time equivalents in October 2024

U.S. Airline Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs)

BTS calculates FTEs by dividing the number of part-time employees by 2 and adding that figure to the number of full-time employees. The October 2024 industry-wide numbers include 752,640 full-time and 269,121 part-time workers for a total of 887,201 FTEs, an increase from September of 5,604 FTEs (0.64%).

The 26 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reporting data for October 2024 employed 516,196 FTEs, 1,295 FTEs (0.25%) more than in September 2024. Data by passenger carrier category can be found in the accompanying tables.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 366,881 FTEs in October 2024, up 4,341 FTEs (1.20%) from September 2024.
 

Reporting Notes

Data is compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of December 6, 2024. Additional airline employment data and previous releases can be found on the BTS website. The month-to-month numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

Passenger, cargo, and charter airlines that operate at least one aircraft that has more than 60 seats or the capacity to carry a payload of passengers, cargo, and fuel weighing more than 18,000 pounds must report monthly employment statistics. Regulations require U.S. airlines to report employment numbers for employees who worked or received pay for any part of the pay period(s) ending nearest the 15th day of the month.

See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for detailed data (Tables 1-15) and industry summary monthly data since 1990. Additional individual airline numbers are available on the BTS airline employment web page. The web page provides full-time and part-time employment numbers by carrier by month from 1990 through October 2024.

The next update for U.S. airline employment is scheduled for January 16, 2025.