Originally Posted by
forgot to bid
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Nearly a quarter of U.S. airline jobs vanished in decade, data show
06:35 AM CST on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News
As the U.S. airline industry lost tens of billions of dollars over the past 10 years, it also lost a tremendous number of employees.Nearly one in every four U.S. airline jobs disappeared in the 10 years that ended Dec. 31, and the largest airlines were among the hardest hit, according to new data.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says U.S. airlines employed 557,674 full-time and part-time workers at the end of 2009, down more than 170,000 from the end of 1999.
Nearly a quarter of U.S. airline jobs vanished in decade, data show | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News
-So, where do you pin the blame? Computers? Internet? PBS? Elimination of 3-pilot aircraft?
Actually, I think all of those items have had some effect, but I think the main reason why the big airlines are shrinking has more to do with productivity, profitability, and competition.
Let's look at Southwest (I can hear everyone sighing). They mainly fly point-to-point, no big congested hubs, its simple and easy. They do not service small or mostly regional sized airports. They
only fly to roughly 60 high-density high-frequency airports. Therefore, they fly routes that are going to fill their aircraft (remember point-to-point) and turn a profit.
At the same time, the bigger carriers have expanded service to bring airline service to smaller airports in the US by the use of big hubs. They fly people 2-3 legs to get them where they are going. Southwest typically does not; 1 leg.
The result is, Southwest flies less and uses less gas to get people to where they need to go -- all be it, to a limited number of airports. But that is what makes them successful.
These routes were once the bread and butter for the large carriers. But the discount carriers have taken a significant portion of the market share from the large carriers. So the result is that the big carriers are shrinking and the lines are blurred between large carriers and major carriers such as Southwest ... who moves more domestic passengers.