Nearly 800 workers to be permanently laid off at Orlando International Airport
ORLANDO, Fla. - A total of 782 food service workers at Orlando International Airport (OIA) who had been temporarily furloughed will be permanently laid off as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the travel industry.
In an email to the State of Florida Displaced Worker's Unit, HMSHost -- the company that employs restaurant workers at OIA -- says that they continue to see an "unprecedented decline in traffic in airports and on the motorways."
"Never in the history of aviation and the hospitality industry have we experienced such catastrophic customer traffic declines," the email said.
As a result, the company says that those workers who were furloughed will be converted to a permanent layoff on Oct. 15 if they have not been recalled by then.
"While it is our desire to see our airport and motorway traffic return and bring back all our valued associates, and while we reasonably believed this would be possible by summer, the unfortunate (and in March unforeseeable) reality is that it is going to take a significant period for our business to recover."
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The affected jobs include crew members, cooks, cashiers, shift supervisors, and more.