Airlines see largest employment drop in five years

Full-time employment at Frontier Airlines declined 15.7 percent between December 2007 and the same month on 2008, the steepest drop of 14 large and low-cost airlines, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported Wednesday.

The overall full-time employment decrease of seven low-cost airlines over that period, including Denver-based Frontier, was 3.3 percent, the BTS said in its monthly “Passenger Airline Employment Data.”

For seven larger, “network” airlines, the decrease was 6.3 percent.

Frontier had 4,397 full-time equivalent employees at the end of 2008, putting it in the middle of the seven low-cost carriers on the BTS list. Southwest Airlines (NSYE: LUV) was tops with 35,499 workers; Virgin America had the fewest, 1,259.

BTS counted two part-time employees as a single full-time worker.

Frontier is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Virgin America had the greatest increase of employees — 71.3 percent — between December 2007 and December 2008 of the seven low-cost airlines, followed by Allegiant (14.2 percent). AirTran was the only low-cost airline besides Frontier with a loss of employees (9.1 percent).

Among seven “network” airlines, United saw the biggest employee reduction, 12.7 percent, between the two Decembers, BTS said, followed by Northwest Airlines (6.9 percent) and Delta Air Lines (6.2 percent). Northwest and Delta (NYSE: DAL) are combining operations.

Overall — among large, low-cost and smaller regional airlines — employment levels experienced their largest year-to-year decrease since December 2003, BTS said.

Employment levels dropped 6.7 percent in December 2008 compared to the same month in 2007, the sixth straight decline in full-time equivalent rates compared to the same month the previous year.

E-mail dayton@bizjournals.com. Call (937) 528-4400.

Northwest to layoff 2,500

"As you know, our fall schedule will be reduced by 8.5% - 9.5% versus the fourth quarter of 2007.
This includes the reductions previously announced in April.As a result, Northwest Airlines announced today that it will reduce its frontline and management employees by 2,500. These reductions are the direct result of our extraordinary fuel costs and the necessary actions we must take to right-size our airline and eliminate unprofitable flying.

In an effort to reach this reduction by voluntary means, the following is a summary of how each employee group will have the opportunity to voluntarily meet the reduction target.

· IAM represented employees will be eligible to apply for a limited number of early out opportunities based on seniority, classification and customer and operational needs at each location/station and may be also be eligible for lifetime retiree pass privileges under the one-time voluntary “Rule of 60” pass travel program. There will also be SLIP leave opportunities in Airport Operations.
· Flight Attendants have recently completed an early out program and are also participating in the previously announced SLIP leave program.
· Pilots may participate through voluntary programs including a targeted Pilot Early Retirement Program (PERP), a SLIP leave program and a Partial Month Leave (PML) program.
· All other employees, including management, are expected to achieve their goals through attrition and through the elimination of open non-operationally critical positions.The IAM program details will be available soon on RADAR, within the Employee Resource Center, which can be found under Featured Links.

I am pleased that we are offering the means to achieve this headcount reduction goal through voluntary programs. Each department will only evaluate the possibility of layoffs if voluntary programs do not sufficiently reduce staffing overages.

Thank you for your continued support as we work together to help control costs and increase our revenue given the unprecedented oil prices.

Doug Steenland
President and CEO