Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Food service vendor at Las Vegas airport to lay off 940 employees

Travel During The Pandemic

Steve Marcus

A view of a welcome sign at McCarran International Airport Thursday, July 2, 2020.

The food service provider at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas says it will lay off 940 employees, the organization said in a letter to Nevada officials.

HMSHost sent a letter to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation about the decisions on Tuesday. The group also said that any workers that were furloughed and not scheduled to return to work by Oct. 15 will also be let go.

Most of the layoffs are for those working as fast food clerks, restaurant hosts, baristas, bartenders and servers.

Food and retail outlets at the airport have been severely affected by the pandemic, which has greatly diminished air travel. Though some outlets at McCarran have reopened with limited hours, many of them remain closed.

"HMSHost continues to see an unprecedented decline in traffic in airports and on the motorways," the company's letter said. "The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the travel and restaurant industries and, unfortunately, HMSHost sits at the crossroads of both. Never in the history of aviation and the hospitality industry, have we experienced such catastrophic customer traffic declines."