United Airlines to lay off hundreds of employees at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport this fall

Jet taking off from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

United Airlines plans to lay off hundreds of Cleveland-based employees in October.The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — United Airlines is planning to lay off as many as 450 employees at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport this fall, a result of the dramatic drop in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline employs about 1,200 workers at Hopkins, a one-time hub for United. Local employees include flight attendants, pilots, ground crew, catering staff, mechanics and others.

United revealed this week that it could lay off as many as 36,000 employees nationwide — nearly 40% of its workforce — due to the pandemic, which has crippled air travel worldwide.

Those layoffs would occur no earlier than Oct. 1, when job-protection requirements included in the federal CARES Act expire. To receive government bailout money included in the law, passed in late March, airlines had to agree not to lay off staff through September.

Numerous U.S. airlines are expected to lay off tens of thousands of employees starting in October.

U.S. air carriers were anticipating a modest rebound in traffic this summer, although recent spikes in coronavirus cases in popular U.S. travel destinations, including Florida and California, are depressing future bookings, according to airport sources.

In May, just 88,559 travelers flew in and out of Cleveland Hopkins – a dramatic drop from the 906,984 travelers who traveled through the airport in May 2019. Year-to-date traffic at Hopkins is down 50%.

As required by law, United sent a letter to the state of Ohio late Wednesday, notifying the state Department of Job and Family Services of the layoffs.

“While demand has moved slightly upward from its April low, we have lost billions of dollars over this three-month period and are still spending far more than we are taking in,” it reads. “Additionally, we expect that travel demand will not go back to ‘normal’ until there is a vaccine for COVID-19.”

The letter also expressed hope that the layoffs would be temporary. Voluntary buyouts and employee concessions are being discussed as well, and may affect layoff numbers.

Sara Nelson, a flight attendant for United and president of the Association of Flight Attendants, called the projected layoffs “a gut punch, but they are also the most honest assessment we’ve seen on the state of the industry – and our entire economy.”

She is advocating for an extension of the CARES Act to “avoid hundreds of thousands of layoffs from an industry that normally drives economic activity for every other sector… Failing to do so will have a ripple effect across the economy.”

United has maintained a sizable staff in Cleveland in the years since it closed its hub at Hopkins in 2014.

It remains the largest carrier at the airport – or, at least it did, until the pandemic hit. Currently, United is flying nonstop to just a handful of destinations from Cleveland, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., Newark, Denver and Houston.

Read more:

Cleveland Hopkins airport gradually adding back flights, with leisure destinations leading the way

Ultimate Air to resume Cleveland-to-Cincinnati flights this month

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