Subsector, 481
Air Transportation
563,220 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $110,690 a year (BLS, May 2025). What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 266 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 28%
- 7%
- 65%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 18% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this industry's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 22%. Today's estimate: 23%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 33 largest jobs hold 95% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks | 76,100 | 74% | 116 million | $46K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 19,950 | 64% | 27 million | $47K |
| Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers | 91,010 | 9% | 17 million | $293K |
| Flight Attendants | 129,740 | 4% | 11 million | $64K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 15,510 | 35% | 11 million | $77K |
| Commercial Pilots | 19,530 | 24% | 9.9 million | $136K |
| Cargo and Freight Agents | 8,880 | 45% | 8.3 million | $49K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 42,360 | 9% | 7.9 million | $46K |
| Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians | 35,890 | 7% | 5 million | $96K |
| Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks | 2,540 | 63% | 3.3 million | $61K |
| Office Clerks, General | 2,440 | 54% | 2.8 million | $50K |
| Airfield Operations Specialists | 6,280 | 20% | 2.6 million | $54K |
People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 98 smaller jobs (26,560 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 98% of the industry's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Make and confirm reservations for transportation and accommodations, using telephones, faxes, mail, and computers.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks24 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare customer invoices and accept payment.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks17 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Provide clients with assistance in preparing required travel documents and forms.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks14 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan routes, itineraries, and accommodation details, and compute fares and fees, using schedules, rate books, and computers.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks12 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare reports showing places of departure and destination, passenger ticket numbers, meal and beverage inventories, the conditions of cabin equipment, and any problems encountered by passengers.Flight Attendants11 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Promote particular destinations, tour packages, and other travel services.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks9.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Choose routes, altitudes, and speeds that will provide the fastest, safest, and smoothest flights.Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers8.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Determine whether space is available on travel dates requested by customers, assigning requested spaces when available.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks8.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Inform clients of essential travel information, such as travel times, transportation connections, or medical and visa requirements.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks8 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Assemble and issue required documentation, such as tickets, travel insurance policies, or itineraries.Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks6.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
Scan a typical company in this industry
The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.
Inside this industry
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works