An airline at Logan Airport will lay off 61 customer service employees in November, citing the end of an agreement with Air Canada.
Maryland-based Piedmont Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines, will place the employees on furlough on Nov. 18, according to a Massachusetts Workers Adjustment Retraining Notice filed with the state on Sept. 22. The company wrote in a letter to the state Department of Career Services that the employees will be on furlough status for four years, but they “anticipate that this furlough will be permanent.”
The company is working with individual employees to find opportunities for transfers.
The employees affected include 51 customer service agents, seven customer service supervisors, two managers and one administrative employee.
A spokesperson for Piedmont Airlines told the Boston Business Journal that the layoffs were prompted by Air Canada’s decision to use another ground-handling vendor for its flights at Logan starting on Nov. 19. The company has “supported Air Canada’s ground-handling operation in Boston for more than a decade,” the spokesperson said.
Piedmont operates close to 400 daily flights in the eastern United States and employs more than 10,000 people, according to its website.