Third Quarter 2019 U.S. Airline Financial Data

U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reported a third-quarter 2019 after-tax net profit of $4.6 billion, the 26th consecutive quarterly after-tax profit, and a pre-tax operating profit of $6.4 billion, the 34th consecutive quarterly pre-tax profit.

U.S. airline financial reports are filed quarterly with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for additional third-quarter 2019 (Tables 1-6) financial results.

Increase in Regional Air Travel during Thanksgiving

On average, BTS estimates1 that 2.03 million passengers per day traveled by air over the 12-day Thanksgiving holiday period from Nov. 16 through Nov. 27, 2018. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the busiest day with 2.33 million passengers, 300,000 more than the average and the highest daily...

Airline Employment Tables September 2019

Employees at U.S. Scheduled Passenger Airlines Month of September, 1990-2019

September 2019 U.S. Passenger Airline Employment Data

The 21 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 2.3% more workers in September 2019 than in September 2018:

• September’s 450,517 full-time equivalents (FTEs) was the highest employment total since March 2003 (458,598 FTEs).  
• September was the 71st consecutive month that U.S. scheduled passenger airline FTEs exceeded the same month of the previous year.

Air Traffic October 2019

Table B. Unadjusted Estimated and Reported Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods, October 2019 Estimate

Table A. Seasonally Adjusted Estimated and Reported Passenger Enplanements Compared to Previous Time Periods, October 2019 Estimate

Figure 2. January-October Passengers on U.S. Airlines - 2003-2019

Figure 1. Monthly Passengers on U.S. Scheduled Airlines (Domestic + International), Seasonally Adjusted, Oct 2016 - Oct 2019 (Sept 2019-Oct 2019 estimated)