Impending airline layoffs likely to affect tourism and hospitality

Almost 2,500 airline workers will lose their jobs across the state, so we looked at how this will affect travel plans this year.

“I mean it’s a trickle-down effect that will reverberate into all of our businesses affecting jobs,” said Bill Waichulis, with Pink Shell Beach Resort & Spa.

The airlines — big and small — are expected to eliminate tens of thousands of jobs nationwide. They’re free to slash payroll, since the agreement to keep everyone employed so airlines could collect billions in federal bailout money expires Thursday.

“Even if it doesn’t feel like it’s paying the bills right now, at least we haven’t been laid off,” flight attendant Stephany Wilson said.

Wilson is a flight attendant and a mother of three, who lives in Fort Myers.

“It just feels very unsettling and scary at this time, but we’re hoping that the airline can keep going; I can keep taking steps to be able to prep provide us with a job,” Wilson said.

If Florida airline workers get hit hard as expected, that will not only mean job cuts but less choices for consumers.

“I imagine they cut the number of flights, right? To accommodate that what it’s going to do,” said Denise Russell, traveling from Newark, New Jersey. “We’re not going to have as many choices in flights.”

We’ll know exactly what the airlines plan to do as Thursday morning. There’s still hope for the tens of thousands of jobs. The airlines say, if Congress comes through with another stimulus package, they will keep everyone on the payroll.

The White House and Democrats in the House of Representatives are talking, but they have not reached not deal.

If airline jobs go, more layoffs could come.

“If you’re not traveling down to our resorts, then, they’re not spending money to local restaurants,” Waichulis said. “They’re not spending money into local T-shirt shops, the grocery stores.”