Southwest Airlines piled on jobs between 2005 and 2009, increasing its number of employees by more than 14 percent.
In the last year alone, Southwest boosted its worker count by nearly 5 percent.
Those days are gone for the No. 3 airline at Denver International Airport, and for other major, low-cost and regional carriers, according to statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Employment at U.S. scheduled passenger airlines dropped 5.7 percent in March compared with March 2008, from 415,700 to 392,100. Major or “network” airlines, which account for two-thirds of the passenger airline total, took the biggest hit with a 6.7 percent decrease.
Regional carriers were down 4.9 percent year over year, while low-cost carriers increased slightly at 0.1 percent.
But economic realities are changing for low-cost carriers such as Southwest and Frontier.
At Wednesday’s annual meeting, Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly told shareholders that a “more difficult revenue environment” will force more capacity cuts this year.
Southwest reported a $91 million net loss in the first quarter of 2009, its third consecutive quarterly loss.
To balance the budget, Kelly said, the airline will look for more, unspecified revenue possibilities and has imposed a hiring freeze and offered employee buyouts.
A specific number of buyouts among the 35,000 employees hasn’t been set.
“We won’t really know how many people have taken ‘early outs’ until after June 19,” spokesman Chris Mainz said.
Frontier Airlines, DIA’s No. 2 carrier, increased its workforce from 2005-09 by almost 8 percent. But since it filed for bankruptcy a year ago, it has cut employees 14.8 percent. It now has 4,386 workers.
In April, Frontier reported its second consecutive quarterly operating profit. It aims to emerge from bankruptcy protection in late summer.
Spokesman Steve Snyder said Frontier may be in better position than many airlines since it has gone through financial pain earlier.
United Airlines, the largest DIA carrier, had the biggest employee decrease among the seven major carriers in the last year at 13.4 percent, bringing its workforce down to 45,700.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
