BTS 2-Week Outlook
Bureau of Transportation Statistics Upcoming Releases
March 29 – April 9
Upcoming from March 29
Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - 11:00am ET
Airline Fuel Cost and Consumption, February 2021
Thursday, April 8, 2021 - 11:00am ET
Airline Full-Time/Part-Time Employment, February 2021
Previously Released
March 17 - Passenger Airline Employment, January 2021
March 18 - U.S. and Foreign Airline Annual Traffic, 2020
March 18 - U.S. Airline Cargo, January 2021 (preliminary)
March 24 - North American Freight Data, January 2021
March 26 – Airline On-Time/Tarmac Data, January 2021
BTS Releases in the Next Two Weeks
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Airline Fuel Cost and Consumption, February 2021
Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - 11:00am ET
Previous release: U.S. airlines January 2021 fuel consumption was 8% lower than December 2020 and almost double consumption in April 2020. April was the lowest monthly fuel usage on record (447M gallons), dating back to 2000. January 2021 fuel consumption was down 42% from January 2020. Fuel consumed by U.S. airlines’ scheduled services:
January 2020 1.5 billion gallons
December 2020 918 million gallons
January 2021 844 million gallons
Industry summary of airline fuel consumption, total fuel cost and price paid per gallon are available on the database. Individual
airline numbers through September are available on the BTS website. Individual airline numbers for October, November and December will be available on May 3. Individual airline numbers for January and February will be available on June 14.
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Airline Full-Time/Part-Time Employment, February 2021
Thursday, April 8, 2021 - 11:00am ET
Previous release: U.S. airlines employed 713,949 workers in the middle of January 2021, 19,311 more than in mid-December 2020 (694,638) but 41,078 fewer than in March 2020 (755,027). The January total was the highest since April (716,693). Total employment (full-time + part-time) by all U.S. airlines including scheduled passenger, charter and cargo:
January 2020 753,404
December 2020 694,638
January 2021 713,949
Regulations require airlines to report employment numbers for a pay period near the 15th of the month. Monthly full-time and part-time employment statistics are reported by U.S. airlines that operate at least one aircraft that has more than 60 seats or the capacity to carry a payload of passengers, cargo and fuel weighing more than 18,000 pounds.
BTS Previously
BTS has released the following:
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Passenger Airline Employment, January 2021
Released March 17
BTS reported that 20 U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 4.9% more full-time equivalents (FTEs) in mid-January 2021 than in mid-December 2020.
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Mid-January’s total number of FTEs (397,999) was up 18,697 from mid-December (379,302 FTEs) and down 62,304 FTEs from mid-March 2020 (460,033). January 2021 was the lowest FTE total for the month of January since 2015 (386,528).
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Mid-January FTEs were down 58,535, a 12.8% drop from mid-January 2020 (456,534).
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U.S. and Foreign Airline Annual Traffic, 2020 Reported
Released March 18
U.S. airlines and foreign airlines serving the U.S. carried 398 million systemwide (domestic and international) scheduled service passengers in 2020, 62% fewer than in 2019 when the record high of 1.1 billion annual passengers was reached.
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Systemwide: 398 million passengers, down 62% from 2019 (1,053M)
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Domestic: 336 million passengers, down 59% from 2019 (812M)
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International: 63 million passengers, down 74% from 2019 (242M)
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U.S. Airline Cargo Data (Preliminary), January 2021
Released March 18
U.S. airlines carried 13% more cargo by weight in January 2021 (preliminary) than in January 2020. The rise was fueled by gains of 12% in domestic cargo and 15% in international cargo, according to data filed by 14 of the leading cargo airlines. The 14 airlines carry 95% of the total cargo by weight on U.S. airlines. Cargo data consists of freight and mail carried within the U.S. and between the U.S. and foreign points.
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North American Freight Data, January 2021
Released March 24
Freight between the U.S. and other North American countries (Canada and Mexico) in January 2021:
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Total Transborder freight: $94.3 billion of transborder freight moved by all modes of transportation, down 2.6% compared to December 2020 and down 2.9% compared to January 2020.
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Most-used mode: Trucks moved $61.1 billion of freight, up 0.9% compared to December 2020, up 0.1% compared to January 2020.
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Second most-used mode: Railways moved $13.9 billion of freight, down 1.9% compared to December 2020, up 3.7% compared to January 2020.
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Airline On-Time/Cancellation Data, January 2021
Released March 26
The 10 marketing network carriers reported 379,384 scheduled domestic flights in January 2021 compared to 397,802 flights in December 2020 and 660,556 flights in January 2020. Of those 379,384 scheduled flights, 1.1%, 4,155 flights, were canceled. As a result of schedule reductions and cancellations, the carriers reported operating 375,229 flights in January 2021, compared to 393,549 flights in December 2020 and the all-time monthly low of 180,151 flights in May 2020. Airlines operated 652,140 flights in January 2020. The marketing carriers include branded code-share partners of mainline carriers.
See BTS Release Schedule
BTS Contact: Dave Smallen
202-366-5568