Laid off from SSP America.

What SSP America layoffs have meant for employees

The planned end of SSP's Sweet Maple lease at SFO shows an airport landlord setting the timetable. The airport wanted its Terminal 2 space back for a use that would earn more, after eight years of what Resolution 401-26 calls underperforming sales per square foot, and the planned end date moved once along the way. The Airport Commission first approved a termination in March 2025, with a $125,000 fee covering about a year of empty space, and airport staff then paused it. The agreement approved in May 2026 dropped the fee and had SSP commit to stay open until the next tenant was ready to move in, a handover the resolution estimated at September 1, 2026, about a year later than first planned, which the city counted as continued employment for Sweet Maple's staff. That first commission vote came about 18 months before the estimated handover, so at SFO the airport's own lease votes gave early word of the planned termination.

SSP's handoffs at BWI and Charleston left its laid-off workers with a second employer to weigh, one that did its own hiring. At BWI, SSP said it was working with Creative Food Group, the firm that bought the contract, "to ensure a smooth transition and continued quality service for BWI patrons and employees," according to the Baltimore Sun, and the airport's spokesman said SSP had made similar moves at other airports. At Charleston, WCIV reported, employees of the outgoing vendor were offered opportunities to move to Delaware North. Creative Food Group planned to turn five of the six BWI locations into new brands, so a job there could carry on under a different name. In a changeover like those, a job that keeps someone in the same terminal would come from the newcomer. If your restaurant is about to change hands, applying with the incoming operator before the switch is one way to keep that job within reach.

Where SSP explained its 2020 layoff plans, it said the restaurants would stay open with fewer people. In Tampa, the St Pete Catalyst reported, SSP told Florida its facilities would remain open at reduced staffing. In Phoenix, according to KJZZ, many SSP employees had been furloughed since March and April, and SSP said its facilities remained open in reduced numbers. For many of those workers, the warning of a layoff came after months away from restaurants that were still serving. Those plans were for smaller crews at facilities SSP said would stay open, unlike the BWI and Charleston handoffs, where the restaurants themselves passed to another company.

If SSP gave you notice in California, the state's WARN reports hold what SSP filed, from the county and the city or street address to the notice and effective dates and whether it was a layoff or a closure, temporary or permanent. The 2024-25 and 2025-26 reports give no reason for any of SSP's three notices since 2025, so they settle the dates and the type and leave the why open. The type has shifted for SSP, from temporary on all five of its 2020 California notices to permanent on all three since 2025. SSP's rows there are listed as SSP America, apart from its 2020 Los Angeles notice, filed as SPP America in the 2020-21 report. Its filings in other states, back to BWI in 2012, can be searched in our WARN tracker.

SSP Group calls SSP America a division of the group and says on its North America page that it has operated in North America since 2006 and has a presence in many major U.S. and Canadian airports. Filing a claim in California starts at California unemployment benefits, and for SSP staff in the other states where its 2020 notices went, Florida and Washington among them, the state pages under unemployment benefits by state are the place to begin.

A sourced history of SSP America layoffs

• March 2026, Sacramento closure notice

  SSP's March 19 notice, which California logs in its 2025-26 WARN report, was a permanent closure at 6900 Airport Blvd. in Sacramento covering 44 jobs, effective May 19, 2026.

• July 2025, San Diego layoff notice

  SSP's July 21 notice, according to California's 2025-26 WARN report, listed 116 San Diego County jobs as a permanent layoff effective September 22, 2025.

• April 2025, Sacramento layoff notice

  In an April 18 notice that California's 2024-25 WARN report records, SSP listed 105 jobs at Sacramento's 6900 Airport Blvd. for a permanent layoff effective June 17, 2025.

• July 2020, temporary layoff notices in five California cities

  SSP's notices of July 27 listed 801 jobs in Oakland, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco for layoffs effective September 27, and California's 2020-21 WARN report typed every one temporary. The Los Angeles notice is listed under the misspelling SPP America.

• July 2020, Tampa International layoff notice

  SSP said, according to the St Pete Catalyst, that it expected to lay off 205 Tampa International workers from September 23 and hadn't anticipated how deeply and widely Covid-19 would spread and hit its business.

• July 2020, Phoenix Sky Harbor layoff letter

  In a July letter that KJZZ reported, SSP told Phoenix it could lay off 429 Sky Harbor employees from September 24, among them bartenders, restaurant managers and warehouse workers.

• July 2020, JFK and LaGuardia notices in New York

  SSP filed two WARN notices dated July 10, one for its staff at JFK International Airport and one for LaGuardia, both on New York's 2020 WARN list.

• May 2014, Charleston food service passes to Delaware North

  Delaware North took over food service at Charleston's airport in May, and its travel president, Kevin Kelly, said, according to WCIV, that 80 to 90 percent of SSP's employees would stay on with his company. SSP's notice listed 63 jobs ending May 31, 2014, per our WARN tracker.

• January 2012, BWI restaurants pass to Creative Food Group

  SSP warned Maryland, the Baltimore Sun reported, that it was laying off 112 BWI employees as it handed six restaurants and bars from its AIRMALL USA sublease to Creative Food Group, a firm that could decide to hire all of them. BWI's spokesman gave current staff a good chance of staying on.

What to do if you're laid off from SSP America

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. SSP America's biggest hubs: California, New York, Florida, Washington. 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 SSP America's hub states run: California, New York, Florida, Washington, 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.