NEW YORK - Full flights? Get used to them. Stressed flight attendants and call centers in India? Get used to those, too.
While the current state of the U.S. airline industry can be frustrating for passengers, it's bad for employees, too -- and some suggest it's getting worse.
U.S. airlines have cut jobs for two straight years, the government said Wednesday, an acceleration of a trend since 2001. What's worse for employees: There's no indication that trend will reverse sharply anytime soon.
Reducing labor costs and flight schedules has helped most U.S. carriers return to profitability for the first time in three years. They aren't in any hurry to change that formula. Meanwhile, the Internet, outsourcing and airline consolidation are all keeping workforce levels close to their current size -- or even shrinking them.
Airline employment in the U.S. is now at its lowest point in 13 years. One in four airline workers has been shed in the last decade.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics said the level of U.S. airline employment in June was the second-lowest in 20 years, falling to 563,551 full-time equivalent employees. In the same period, annual passenger traffic jumped about 65 percent.
Job losses at U.S. airlines have sped up since 2008, because the recession forced carriers to cut thousands of jobs here and ship more overseas. The industry has lost 54,000 jobs, or 16 percent of its workforce, in the last two years.
Faced first with soaring fuel costs and then a slump in travel demand between 2007 and 2009, airlines dropped routes that weren't profitable. There are fewer flights to choose from, so planes are fuller. Diminishing staff and fuller flights are adding to the stress among flight attendants, pilots and other workers.
