U.S. Airline Employees Headcount (Full-time and Part-time Employees)

U.S. airline industry (passenger and cargo airlines combined) employment increased to 767,263 workers in June 2022, 6,775 (0.89%) more workers than in May 2022 (760,488) and 23,893 (3.21%) more than in pre-pandemic June 2019 (743,370).

U.S. scheduled-service passenger airlines employed 484,773 workers in June or 64% of the industry-wide total. Passenger airlines added 6,851 employees in June for a fourteenth consecutive month of job growth dating back to May 2021. Delta led scheduled passenger carriers, adding 2,981 employees; United Airlines added 1,322 employees, and Southwest Airlines added 1,007.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 278,462 workers in June, 36% of the industry total. Cargo carriers added 605 employees in June. FedEx, the leading air cargo employer, increased employment by 417 jobs.

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 June industry-wide numbers include 656,238 full-time and 111,025 part-time workers for a total of 711,751 FTEs, an increase from May of 5,914 FTEs (0.84%). June’s total number of FTEs remains just 4.86% above pre-pandemic June 2019’s 683,656 FTEs.

The 27 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reporting data for June 2022 employed 458,136 FTEs, 5,856 FTEs (1.30%) more than in May 2022. June’s total number of scheduled passenger airline FTEs is 7,869 FTEs (1.75%) above pre-pandemic June 2019. Data by passenger carrier category can be found in the accompanying tables.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 249,636 FTEs in June, up 652 FTEs (0.26%) from May. U.S. cargo airlines have increased FTEs by 19,857 (8.64%) since pre-pandemic June 2019.

Reporting Notes

Data are compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of August 5, 2022. Additional airline employment data and previous releases can be found on the BTS website.

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 since 2015 (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 June 2022.

The next update for U.S. airline employment is scheduled for September 13.