Employment At U.S. Airlines Continues to Fall

The U.S. Department of Transportation reported the number of employees working for U.S. airlines in December was down 3.3 percent from a year earlier. It is the 18th straight time the number of full-time equivalent employees fell, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The only airline to show a net gain in employees was Delta Air Lines, which inherited staff through its merger with Northwest Airlines. American Airlines reported the biggest workforce with 66,700 full-time equivalent workers. Southwest led low-cost carriers with 34,726 full-time employees. The report counts two part-time employees as a single full-time worker.