U.S. Cargo and Passenger Airlines Gained 9,326 Jobs in September 2024

This release is published on a fixed schedule as required by the Office of Management and Budget, and statistics in this release may be revised when inputs to the statistics are corrected or updated. Data on the program page of this website are the most up-to-date and complete.

Note: In June, FedEx Ground and FedEx Services merged with FedEx Express to form Federal Express Corporation. As a result of the merger, carrier FX has experienced a significant increase in employee count, increasing the total number of employees in the industry.

May 2024 Federal Express numbers are 233,739, while Federal Express Corporation June numbers are 432,127.

U.S. Airline Total Number of Employees (both Full-Time and Part-Time)

U.S. airline industry (passenger and cargo airlines combined) employment increased to 1,011,812 workers in September 2024, 9,326 (0.93%) more workers than in August 2024 (1,002,486).

U.S. scheduled-service passenger airlines employed 543,105 workers in September 2024, or 54% of the industry-wide total. Passenger airlines gained 122 employees in September 2024. United Air Lines Inc. led scheduled passenger carriers, adding 448 employees; SkyWest Airlines Inc. added 125, and Piedmont Airlines added 119.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 464,445 workers in September 2024, or 46% of the industry-wide total. Cargo carriers gained 9,152 employees in September. FedEx, the leading air cargo employer, increased employment by 8,561 jobs.

Scheduled passenger airlines gained 253 full-time equivalents in September 2024

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 September 2024 industry-wide numbers include 751,381 full-time and 260,431 part-time workers for a total of 881,597 FTEs, an increase from August of 6,044 FTEs (0.69%).

The 26 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reporting data for September 2024 employed 514,901 FTEs, 253 FTEs (0.05%) more than in August 2024. Data by passenger carrier category can be found in the accompanying tables.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 362,540 FTEs in September 2024, up 5,735 FTEs (1.61%) from August 2024.

Reporting Notes

Data is compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of November 7, 2024. Additional airline employment dataand previous releases can be found on the BTS website. The month-to-month numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

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 (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 September 2024.

The next update for U.S. airline employment is scheduled for Tuesday, December 10, 2024.

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