A company that manages feeder services at Anchorage and Fairbanks International Airports said it plans to lay off more than 140 employees in October, months after COVID-19 began decimating travel.
The layoffs included 123 workers at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and 19 at Fairbanks International Airport, according to HMSHost in letters to state employment officials warning of the major cuts.
The Anchorage layoffs will affect Starbucks, Cinnabon, Humpy’s Great Alaskan Alehouse, Norton Sound Seafood House, Alaska Doghaus, Cream, Upper One Restaurant / Lounge, Mezzanine Bar, Anchorage Marketplace and Local Alaskan Rustic Marketplace, the company said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed the travel and restaurant industry, and unfortunately HMSHost is at the crossroads of both,” the letter said. “Never in the history of aviation and hospitality have we experienced such a catastrophic decline in customer traffic.”
Fairbanks’ layoffs will affect The Local and Starbucks, HMSHost said.
The workers were furloughed in March. But the layoffs are expected to be made permanent on October 15, unless the situation changes, HMSHost said.
The Maryland headquarters company said in the letter that it would like the workers to return as travel returned and that this summer had hope.
The “unfortunate … reality is that it will take an important period for our companies to recover,” HMSHost said.
The travel and hairdressing industry was hit hardest during the pandemic-driven downturn. Alaska Airlines recently announced that it expects to permanently lay off 330 employees in Anchorage on October 1, and nearly 1,600 in Washington state, in an effort to survive the silence during travel during the pandemic.
The layoffs pile up more uncertainty about the struggles of Alaska’s economy, as many benefits from federal and state unemployment shrink than on.
The pandemic, combined with a multi-year recession in Anchorage, has wiped out the city’s job profits since 2001, the forecast said.
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