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April 2020 U.S. Passenger Airline Employment Data

The 23 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 6.7% fewer full-time equivalents (FTEs) in mid-April 2020 than in mid-March 2020:

  • Mid-April’s total number of FTEs (428,569) was down almost 31,000 workers from mid-March 2020 (459,250 FTEs) and was the lowest FTE total for any month since August 2017 (423,747 FTEs).
  • Mid-April 2020 FTEs were down 4.0% or almost 18,000 FTEs from April 2019 (446,323 FTEs).  
  • April was the first month that U.S. scheduled passenger airline FTEs were lower than the same month of the previous year since April 2013.

April 2020 U.S. Airlines Cargo (Preliminary): International Shipments Down 15%

U.S. airlines carried 1.3% less cargo by weight in April 2020 than in April 2019 with a 15% decline in international cargo, according to preliminary data filed with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by 15 of the leading cargo airlines.

 

The 15 airlines carry more than 95% of the total cargo by weight on U.S. airlines. Cargo data consists of freight and mail carried within the U.S. and between the U.S. and foreign points.

First Quarter 2020 U.S. Airline Financial Data

U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reported a first-quarter 2020 after-tax net loss of $5.2 billion and a pre-tax operating loss of $4.6 billion.

 

The first-quarter losses follow 27 consecutive quarterly after-tax net profits and 35 consecutive quarterly pre-tax operating profits.

 

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 first-quarter 2020 (Tables 1-6) financial results.