Regional carrier full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) were up 5.9 percent in February 2007 compared to February 2006, the largest increase in FTEs from the previous year since July 2005, according to statistics, recently released by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
GoJet and Republic (RJET) reported the largest increases in the group. GoJet employed 54.6 percent more FTEs in February 2007 than February 2006 while Republic employed 129.9 percent more. Regional carrier FTEs rose from 48,900 in February 2004 to 59,900 in February 2007, an increase of 22.4 percent. The 10 regional carriers reporting employment data in both 2003 and 2007 employed 19.9 percent more FTEs in February 2007 than in February 2003. Of that group, Air Wisconsin , Mesaba Airlines and Executive Airlines were the only carriers to report fewer FTEs in February 2007 than February 2003.
Overall, the scheduled passenger industry employed 0.2 percent more workers in February 2007 than in February 2006, the first increase in FTE levels for the scheduled passenger carriers from the same month of the previous year since December 2004. Only the network carrier group reported fewer FTE employees in February than in the prior year with a 2.2 percent decrease, while all other carriers combined employed 5.0 percent more FTEs than a year earlier. SkyWest (SKYW), ExpressJet (XJT), Comair, Atlantic Southeast, Horizon (ALK), Mesa (MESA), Pinnacle (PNCL), Shuttle America, Republic and GoJet all added FTEs from February 2006 to February 2007 along with Continental (CAL) and Alaska (ALK).
American (AMR) employed the most FTEs in February among the network carriers, Southwest (LUV) employed the most among low-cost carriers, and American Eagle Airlines employed the most among regional carriers.