The consequences of a merger
Total employment in the USA’s airline sector (passenger and cargo figures) fell by 21,330 jobs (–2%) to 1,014,225 in December 2024.
Passenger airlines employed 544,298 workers (54% of the total) and gained 392 jobs. Cargo airlines employed 466,011 workers (46%), but lost 21,656 jobs, with FedEx reducing its workforce by 21,621 jobs, due to restructuring.
In June, FedEx Ground and FedEx Services merged with FedEx Express to form the Federal Express Corporation. As a result of the merger, the carrier FX experienced a significant increase in employee count, increasing the total number of employees in the industry. The Federal Express figure for May 2024 stood at 233,739, while the Federal Express Corporation figure for June 2024 came to 432,127.
The figure for ‘full-time equivalent units’ (fteu) in the industry fell by 12,787 (–1.4%) to 882,007. Passenger airlines gained 261 fteu, while cargo airlines lost 12,996 fteu (–3.5%). (ah)