US airline workforce up 2.6% in November

US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported that US airlines employed 389,361 workers in November, up 2.6% from November 2010.

BTS said this is the 12^th consecutive increase in full-time equivalent employee levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year.

BTS said Continental Airlines reported 14.7% more full-time employees, the largest increase among the network carriers. US Airways followed with a 3.5% increase. Only two network airlines, Alaska Airlines (down 0.4%) and Delta Air Lines (down 0.3%), reported decreased employment.

According to the report, low-cost carriers (LCCs) reported 5.9% increases in full-time employment over the year-ago month. Five LCCs—Virgin America (up 18.4%), Spirit Airlines (up 13.5%), Southwest Airlines (up 7.4%), JetBlue Airways (up 7.2%) and AirTran Airways (up 1.8%)—reported workforce increases. Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air reported decreases of 6.3% and 3.2%, respectively.

Regional carriers reported a 0.6% increase in full-time employment in November 2011 compared to the year-ago month. Among the 17 regional carriers, 11 reported increased employment levels and six reported reduced employment levels. Shuttle America (up 21.3%) and GoJet (up 16.6%) reported the largest percentage increases. Comair (down 25.7%) and Colgan Airlines (down 20.8%) reported the largest percentage decreases, BTS stated.