PrimeFlight Aviation Services, a national ground handler accused of wage standards violations last year, will lay off about 64 people at San Antonio International Airport after losing a contract with Delta Air Lines.
The Nashville, Tenn.-based company told the Texas Workforce Commission that the employees would lose their jobs on April 30, the day PrimeFlight's ramp contract with Delta ends.
PrimeFlight officials could not be reached for comment. The company provides a variety of services at San Antonio International, including curbside baggage handling and ground handling services for aircraft.
Airport spokesman Rich Johnson said PrimeFlight had contracts with both Delta and Aeromexico. How many PrimeFlight employees would remain after the layoffs was unclear.
The company also expects to lay off 276 employees at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston after United Airlines replaced it with another contractor there. Those layoffs are scheduled for May 15.
PrimeFlight drew headlines last year when employees in both Houston and San Antonio said they were pressured by management to report more tip income than they actually made so PrimeFlight would not have to kick in money to meet minimum wage guidelines.
An official with PrimeFlight's parent company, SMS Holdings Corp., denied those claims.
But the Gulf Coast Workforce Board, which oversees state job training and placement services in the Houston area, interviewed people it had placed at PrimeFlight through a tax-funded job incentive initiative called the Texas Back to Work Program after hearing the allegations. Staff Director Rodney Bradshaw said PrimeFlight was suspended from the program as a result.
Prime Flight is not a contractor in the Back to Work Program in the San Antonio area, a spokeswoman for Workforce Solutions Alamo said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor said it also has a wage-and-hour investigation into claims against PrimeFlight but could not discuss details.
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