US airlines have been struggling with a shortage of trained crew, from pilots to ground ops. But there is some good news. The US Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics just released its April 2022 employment data, and 4,752 jobs were added by both cargo and passenger airlines.
These jobs are for pilots, flight attendants, administrative, and maintenance personnel. The figures represent a 13.9% growth from April 2021 in hiring for all passenger airlines.
It's also worth noting that network airlines like Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines represent 61.8 % of all airline employment versus 22.9 % from low-cost airlines like Southwest and Spirit. Regional and other airlines are the balance.
Recovering but not a full recovery yet from COVID-19
Although moving in the right direction, these hiring numbers are not representative of a full recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Until vaccines were available for the general US population in earky 2021, lockdowns were necessary to protect our fellow humans.
Simple Flying asked back in early 2020 if masks would be part of amenity kits, American Airlines implemented social distancing, and United Airlines slashed capacity and jobs by 50%. Although commercial aviation has come a long way from the dark days of spring 2020, the April 2022 hiring number of 275,539 is still less than the April 2019 high of 287,095.
Top Ten airlines by employment
Below is a table from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics as to which airlines are in the top ten for April 2022 by employment:
Rank |
Airline |
Total FTE Employees |
Carrier Group |
1 |
American |
95,762 |
Network |
2 |
Delta |
86,257 |
Network |
3 |
United |
76,226 |
Network |
4 |
Southwest |
60,311 |
Low-cost |
5 |
JetBlue |
20,102 |
Low-cost |
6 |
Alaska |
17,294 |
Network |
7 |
SkyWest |
13,614 |
Regional |
8 |
Envoy |
13,500 |
Regional |
9 |
Spirit |
10,490 |
Low-cost |
10 |
Piedmont |
7,022 |
Regional |
Alaska Airlines has been busy hiring too
Alaska Airlines, an airline that had some tragic overscheduling beyond crewing numbers, found that in April it got a 10% improvement in overall employment compared with April 2021. Worth noting April 2021 is when vaccines from COVID-19 became available to the general US population - not just health care heroes and high-risk populations.
With plenty of communications regarding how Alaska Airlines plans to address the pilot shortage, the airline issued the following statement regarding its hiring in the recent weeks.
We’ve undertaken significant hiring efforts for both flight attendants and pilots. At this point, we have successfully hired enough flight attendants and will likely not start hiring again until the fall. For pilots, we have training classes filled through the end of July with dozens more in a pool who will start training later this summer. We continue our work to fill the pilot pipeline through programs like the Ascend Academy and True North Pilot Development Program.
Low-cost airlines rebounding well too
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying
Not only is Alaska Airlines doing well in hiring, but so are Southwest Airlines and other low-cost carriers. As an example Southwest Airlines almost recovered its employee numbers from COVID-19 - in April 2022, it had 60,917 employees versus April 2020's 62,191. It's still 1,458 employees more than in March 2022.
Optimistic about the future of airlines with hiring rebounding? Let us know in the comments please.