Mid-July 2020 US passenger airline employment up 4,600 FTEs from Mid-June

All 23 scheduled service passenger airlines (mid-July)

• 415,154 FTEs
• Down 7.7% (34,753 FTEs) from July 2019 (449,907 FTEs)
• Up 0.3% (1,408 FTEs) from July 2016 (413,746 FTEs)

Four network airlines (mid-July)
Network airlines operate a significant portion of their flights using at least one hub where connections are made for flights to down-line destinations or spoke cities. Note that beginning with January 2018 data, Virgin America’s numbers are included with Alaska Airlines in the network category.

• 252,536 FTEs, 60.8% of total scheduled passenger airline FTEs
• Down 12.6% (36,402 FTEs) from July 2019 (288,938 FTEs)
• Down 7.1% (19,427 FTEs) from July 2016 (271,963 FTEs)
• Up 2.4% (5,986 FTEs) from mid-June 2020 (246,550 FTEs)
• Up 2.0% (4,887 FTEs) from mid-May 2020 (247,649 FTEs)
• Down 3.7% (9,764 FTEs) from mid-April 2020 (262,300 FTEs)
• Down 13.3% (38,673 FTEs) from mid-March (291,209 FTEs)

Five low-cost airlines (mid-July)
Low-cost airlines operate under a low-cost business model, with infrastructure and aircraft operating costs below the overall industry average.

• 98,042 FTEs, 23.6% of total scheduled passenger airline FTEs
• Up 2.4% (2,266 FTEs) from July 2019 (95,776 FTEs)
• Up 17.4% (14,561 FTEs) from July 2016 (83,481 FTEs)
• Down 0.3% (341 FTEs) from mid-June 2020 (98,383 FTEs)
• Down 0.6% (599 FTEs) from mid-May 2020 (98,641 FTEs)
• Down 0.6% (579 FTEs) from mid-April 2020 (98,621 FTEs)
• Down 0.5% (489 FTEs) from mid-March 2020 (98,531 FTEs)

10 regional airlines (mid-July)
Regional carriers typically provide service from small cities, using primarily regional jets to support the network carriers’ hub and spoke systems.

• 56,265 FTEs, 13.6% of total scheduled passenger airline FTEs
• Down 1.3% (759 FTEs) from July 2019 (57,024 FTEs)
• Up 10.3% (5,244 FTEs) from July 2016 (51,021 FTEs)
• Down 0.4% (252 FTEs) from mid-June 2020 (56,517 FTEs)
• Down 0.2% (101 FTEs) from mid-May 2020 (56,366 FTEs)
• Down 4.9% (2,877 FTEs) from mid-April 2020 (59,142 FTEs)
• Down 7.8% (4,738 FTEs) from mid-March 2020 (61,003 FTEs)

Top Employers by Group
Four other airlines

• Network: American       101,410 FTEs
• Low-Cost: Southwest      60,885 FTEs
• Regional: SkyWest          17,258 FTEs

Other carriers generally operate within specific niche markets. They are: Hawaiian Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, Silver Airlines and Eastern Airlines.