USA Banner

Official US Government Icon

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure Site Icon

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Newsroom

Left Nav - Newsroom
Newsroom
86
Subscribe to Newsroom

May 2020 North American Transborder Freight Down 49% from May 2019

Transborder freight between the U.S. and other North American countries (Canada and Mexico) in May 2020:

 

Total Transborder freight: $56.1 billion of transborder freight moved by all modes of transportation, down 48.9% compared to May 2019. The $56.1 billion in total Transborder freight was the lowest amount since May 2009.

  • Most-used mode: Trucks moved $39.1 billion of freight, down 43.2% compared to May 2019.
  • Second most-used mode: Railways moved $5.5 billion of freight, down 66.3% compared to May 2019.
  • Transborder freight value in May was down 3.5% from April and down 43.3% from March.

First Quarter 2020 Air Fare Drops to New Low

U.S. domestic average air fares declined in the first quarter of 2020 to $336, the lowest inflation-adjusted quarterly air fare on record in Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) records dating back to 1995. The previous low was $347 in the third quarter of 2019.

 

Adjusted for inflation, (constant 2020 dollars) the first-quarter 2020 air fare was:

  • Down 6.0% from 1Q 2019 ($358)
  • Down 6.1% from 4Q 2019 ($358)
  • Down 21.6% from 1Q 2015 ($429)

Mid-May 2020 U.S. Passenger Airline Employment Down 18,000 FTEs from Mid-April

The 23 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 4.1% fewer full-time equivalents (FTEs) in mid-May 2020 than in mid-April 2020:

  • Mid-May’s total number of FTEs (411,651) was down almost 18,000 FTEs from mid-April 2020 (429,407 FTEs) and down more than 48,000 FTEs from mid-March 2020.  It was the lowest FTE total for any month since May 2016 (410,338 FTEs).
  • Mid-May 2020 FTEs were down more than 36,000 FTEs, down 8.1%, from May 2019 (447,981 FTEs).  

 

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. U.S. airline employment reports are filed monthly with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for detailed data since 2015 (Tables 1-15) and industry summary data since 1990.