The sudden decline in air travel has cut demand for aircraft maintenance services, putting at risk 510 full-time and four part-time employees at HAECO Airframe Services in Lake City.
HAECO Spokesman David Kelly said that, as of Wednesday, no employees have been laid off due to COVID-19 and normal operations continue.
Kelly also said the company has applied for relief funding, which it has not yet received.
In an April 13 letter to state and local officials, Stephen Coley, the general manager at Lake City's HEACO facility, said terminations would begin April 30 and last through May 31. The letter was filed in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
Under the federal WARN Act, employers are required to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of covered plant closings and mass layoffs.
Coley could not be reached for comment.
HAECO employees have been notified of the impending layoffs, the letter said. The letter also specified that the layoffs would be permanent. HAECO does not have union employees at its Lake City facility.
The affected employees perform a number of jobs, the letter said, including dozens of mechanics, technicians and inspectors.
Lake City Mayor Stephen Witt said HAECO, formerly TIMCO Aviation Services, has been a significant member of the community since the 1960s and works closely with the small Lake City Gateway Airport.
He also said that during this time, while employees have not been able to perform plane maintenance, HAECO has arranged to pay some of its Lake City employees to work on temporary projects with other groups in town, including the city government.
"That's how good of a partnership we've had with them over the years," Witt said.
He did not know how many such employees are working with the city but said they have been doing jobs such as painting and other maintenance work.
Kelly, the HAECO spokesman, did not have any information about such work arrangements for the company's employees.
When it comes to COVID-19 recovery, Witt said, Lake City residents have mostly voiced concerns about employment impacts caused by the mandatory shutdown of businesses. He said local officials will have to make financial adjustments as recovery takes place moving forward.
"We're going to have to be tight with the budget because there will be less tax money coming in," he said. "I'm all for safety, but we know we have to reopen at some point."
Columbia County experienced a jump in unemployment over the past month. The latest state data, from March, shows that the county's unemployment rate increased by 1.3% between February and March, to 4.4% total unemployment.
A year earlier, in March 2019, the county's unemployment rate was 3.3%.
As of Wednesday, Lake City has 89 COVID-19 cases and no deaths. Columbia County as a whole has 96 total cases and two deaths.
"We're lucky that we have not had it as bad as other places nearby," Witt said.
HAECO is based in Hong Kong, and a majority of its facilities are located in China. HAECO America is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, and has two other North Carolina locations. Lake City is HAECO America's only Florida facility.
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