Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 6.6 percent fewer workers in February 2009 than in February 2008, the eighth consecutive decrease in full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today . The February FTE total of 391,682 for the scheduled passenger carriers was an increase of 1,025 from January but still was second lowest total since 1993. FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

All the network airlines decreased employment from February 2008 to February 2009 as did low-cost carriers AirTran Airways, Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. Regional carriers American Eagle Airlines, SkyWestAirlines, ExpressJet Airlines, Comair, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Horizon Air, Mesa Airlines, Executive Airlines, and PSA Airlines also reported reduced employment levels compared to last year.

Scheduled passenger airline categories include network, low-cost, regional and other airlines.

The seven network carriers employed 264,561 FTEs in February, 67.5 percent of the passenger airline total, while low-cost carriers employed 16.1 percent and regional carriers employed 14.7 percent.

American Airlines employed the most FTEs in February among the network carriers, Southwest Airlines employed the most FTEs among low-cost carriers, and American Eagle employed the most FTEs among regional carriers. Seven of the top 10 employers in the industry are network carriers.

America West Airlines and US Airways now operate under a single certificate. Joint reporting began with October 2007 data. Before October 2007, US Airways employment numbers were included with the network airlines, while America West's numbers were included with the low-cost airlines. Beginning with October 2007 data, US Airways numbers are combined with America West's numbers in the network airlines category.