Airline Employment Fell 5.7% in October

DALLAS -- The nation's airlines cut jobs by 5.7% in October to the lowest total since 1993 as they operated fewer flights than a year ago, according to a federal report Tuesday.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the decline compared with October 2007 was the fourth straight monthly decline and the biggest such drop since July 2006.

The agency said U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed the equivalent of 394,300 full-time workers in October. Two part-time workers are counted as one full-time employee.

Job numbers continued to be more steady at low-cost carriers, several of which added workers, than at the older network airlines.

Most U.S. airlines turned from profitable to money-losing earlier this year as fuel prices skyrocketed, hitting record levels in early July. They announced layoffs of thousands of workers and major cutbacks in flights in late summer. Since then, fuel prices have eased, but the economy has spiraled downward, hurting demand for air travel.

The statistics agency, part of the Transportation Department, said all seven traditional network airlines except Alaska Airlines (ALK) shed jobs between October 2007 and October 2008. The network carriers, such as Delta Air Lines (DAL) and American Airlines (AMR), existed before airline deregulation and base most of their operations in a few hub airports.

The network airlines employed the equivalent of 266,608 full-time workers in October, slightly more than two-thirds of the industry total. They employed 5.4% fewer workers than they did in October 2007.

The biggest cuts by percentage were at United Airlines (UAUA), down 9.9%; Delta, 5.7%; and Northwest, 5.1%. US Airways (LCC) cut 5% of its work force; American trimmed 3.9%; and Continental Airlines (CAL) cut 3.8%. Alaska Air grew by 0.2%.