U.S. Cargo and Passenger Airlines Gained 933 Jobs in August 2026

BTS 26-77

This release is published on a fixed schedule as required by the Office of Management and Budget, and statistics in this release may be revised when inputs to the statistics are corrected or updated. Data on the program page of this website are the most up-to-date and complete.

Note: Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have merged and employment from both companies is now reported solely under Alaska Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines no longer reports separate employment numbers.

U.S. Airlines: Total Number of Employees (both Full-Time and Part-Time)

U.S. airline industry (passenger and cargo airlines combined) employment increased to 1,038,900 workers in August 2026, 933 (0.09%) more workers than in July 2026 (1,037,967).

U.S. scheduled-service passenger airlines employed 553,911 workers in August 2026, or 54% of the industry-wide total. Passenger airlines lost 1,648 employees in August 2026. United Airlines led scheduled passenger carriers, adding 237 employees; Breeze Aviation Group added 125, and PSA Airlines added 50.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 480,518 workers in August 2026, or 46% of the industry-wide total. Cargo carriers gained 2,548 employees in August. FedEx, the leading air cargo employer, increased employment by 2,536 jobs

Scheduled passenger airlines lost 1,500 full-time equivalents in August 2026

U.S. Airline Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs)

BTS calculates FTEs by dividing the number of part-time employees by 2 and adding that figure to the number of full-time employees. The August 2026 industry-wide numbers include 746,951 full-time and 291,949 part-time workers for a total of 892,926 FTEs, a decrease from July of 96 FTEs (0.01%).

The 24 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines reporting data for August 2026 employed 523,304 FTEs, 1,500 FTEs (0.29%) fewer than in July 2026. Data by passenger carrier category can be found in the accompanying tables.

U.S. cargo airlines employed 365,238 FTEs in August 2026, up 1,370 FTEs (0.38%) from July 2026.

Reporting Notes

Data is compiled from monthly reports filed with BTS by commercial air carriers as of October 13, 2026. Additional airline employment data and previous releases can be found on the BTS website. The month-to-month numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

Passenger, cargo, and charter airlines that operate at least one aircraft that has more than 60 seats or the capacity to carry a payload of passengers, cargo, and fuel weighing more than 18,000 pounds must report monthly employment statistics. Regulations require U.S. airlines to report employment numbers for employees who worked or received pay for any part of the pay period(s) ending nearest the 15th day of the month.

See the tables that accompany this release on the BTS website for detailed data (Tables 1-15) and industry summary monthly data since 1990. Additional individual airline numbers are available on the BTS airline employment web page. The web page provides full-time and part-time employment numbers by carrier by month from 1990 through May 2026.

The next update for U.S. airline employment is scheduled for Monday, November 9, 2026.

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