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Economics, employment, and finance

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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.

 

Mid-May Airline Employment Down 20,000 from Mid-April

U.S. airlines employed 696,534 workers in the middle of May 2020, 20,100 fewer than in mid-April 2020 and 42,282 fewer than in May 2019. The May 2020 numbers consist of 588,802 full-time and 107,732 part-time workers

U.S. Airlines May 2020 Fuel Use Up 1.4% from April

 

The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released U.S. airlines’ May Fuel Cost and Consumption numbers.

 

Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines’ scheduled services:

 

May 2019                    1.6 billion gallons

April 2020                     447 million gallons

May 2020                      453 million gallons

Form 41 Financial DB10 Data

Click Year/Quarter to download DB10 Product (.zip format)

NOTE: If you are interested in any aviation data not listed below or if you have any questions, please email answers@dot.gov ►2024

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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.

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.