Laid off from Menzies Aviation.

What Menzies Aviation layoffs have meant for employees

In Miami, Menzies tied its cargo jobs to the airline those jobs served. Its July 2024 letter said every position allocated to the Avianca account would end on the day the account did, and that company policy didn't allow bumping rights. Menzies' April 2021 release had called that five-year Avianca contract one of the most significant wins in the history of its cargo business. The letter set the account's end about three years and four months after Menzies' team started on it. If you work on one airline's account at a Menzies station, the Miami letter shows what an account's end has meant there, with every position on it set to go on one date. Menzies' 2018 letter about Detroit Metro, as ClickOnDetroit quoted it, called that station's closing permanent until Menzies could submit a new bid for Delta's contract at the airport.

Where an airline took its work back in-house, the next step for the crew depended on the airline. Alaska Airlines had outsourced its Sea-Tac baggage work to Menzies a dozen years before it pulled the work back in 2017. That first switch cut handlers' wages and helped fuel SeaTac's $15 minimum wage movement, as The Stand relayed from the Seattle Times. The McGee Air Services jobs on offer were to keep starting pay unchanged. A Machinists contract was to bring better benefits and raises over six years. Anyone who took a McGee job would be leaving a nonunion employer for a union one. When United brought its Miami work back to United employees in 2024, G2's notice to Florida set out the cuts by job class. If an airline is taking over work you do, its own hiring is worth knowing about ahead of your last day, since the Sea-Tac offers came from the airline's own unit.

In 2024 both companies that now make up Menzies' US business gave notice at Miami International Airport, G2 in January after United took its work back and Menzies in July as its Avianca cargo account was ending. Menzies bought G2 Secure Staff in August 2025, and by an Aviation Pros report a year on it had moved its former G2 staff onto Menzies' systems and brand, folding G2's HR systems, policies and procedures into its own. Menzies called it the largest integration in its history, after a deal that had doubled its US footprint. Menzies had grown by purchase before, buying ASIG from BBA Aviation in 2017 for $202 million, according to John Menzies plc's completion announcement. If you worked for G2 or ASIG, the notices filed before each purchase carry that company's own name, and Connecticut's June 2026 notice for Windsor Locks still went out as G2 Secure Staffing.

The 2020 cut followed airline customers grounding passenger flights on an unprecedented scale, in Menzies' words, and the figure it gave counted the whole group, with operations in 34 countries. Its March 2020 update said governments in some countries were supporting the reductions and that it hoped, in the fullness of time, a high number of those employees could return to the business, while its directors and senior managers had taken 20% pay cuts.

California accounts for 20 of the Menzies, G2 and ASIG notices in our WARN tracker, and Florida for 8, more than any other state, ahead of Georgia and Massachusetts. The state pages for California unemployment benefits, Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts explain filing there, and the Washington and Connecticut pages cover the states where Menzies' SeaTac and G2's Windsor Locks notices were filed.

A sourced history of Menzies Aviation layoffs

• October 2026, Los Angeles notice at 1 World Way

  California's WARN report lists the Menzies Aviation notice, dated October 5 and processed October 14, as a permanent layoff of 137 at 1 World Way in Los Angeles, set for November 19.

• June 2026, G2 notice for Bradley's Delta work

  G2 Secure Staff told Connecticut that 100 jobs at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks would end August 19, once its contract with Delta expired, News 12 reported. G2 expected the job losses to be permanent and to affect full-time and part-time workers alike.

• July 2024, Avianca cargo account at Miami

  Menzies' letter to Miami staff said it would stop handling Avianca's cargo at Miami International Airport on September 16, ending all 409 positions on the account, a reduction it expected to be permanent.

• January 2024, United takes G2's Miami work in-house

  G2 Secure Staff's notice to Florida said United was bringing its work back in-house, so 130 of G2's roughly 296 jobs at Miami International Airport would end on March 4 or April 15, 53 of them in ramp services.

• March 2020, pandemic headcount cut worldwide

  John Menzies plc's March 27 update said it had reduced global headcount by more than 17,500 as flights handled fell by over 60% in two weeks.

• September 2018, Detroit Metro Airport station closing

  Menzies told Michigan's dislocated-worker office that its station at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport would stop operating November 10, ClickOnDetroit reported, putting the loss at nearly 200 jobs.

• June 2018, Tampa jobs after two lost contracts

  Menzies planned to lay off 123 workers at Tampa International Airport, it told the state, after losing its LGSTX Service contract on June 4, with its Frontier Airlines contract ending June 26, per a Tampa Bay Business Journal report Aviation Pros republished.

• March 2017, Alaska moves Sea-Tac baggage work to McGee

  Alaska Airlines took its Sea-Tac baggage-handling contract from Menzies for McGee Air Services, a new subsidiary, and about 900 Menzies employees were to be offered work there under the Machinists union, per a Seattle Times report The Stand relayed.

What to do if you're laid off from Menzies Aviation

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Menzies Aviation's biggest hubs: California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Menzies Aviation's hub states run: California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.