SACRAMENTO –

Sacramento International Airport needs to shave $14 million in costs a year.

It’s a big number and that could mean big changes for some families who count on the facility for their livelihood.

They shuttle us back and forth to the terminals, clean up after us and ring up all the last-minute must-haves for our flights, but now about thirty of those folks won’t be working at Sac International any more.

“We are looking at a very slow growth or a no growth scenario over the next several years,” County Airport System director John Wheat said back in December when FOX40 interviewed him about the financial health of the fly-hub.

With passenger traffic dropping 20 percent in the last seven years and the airport in debt more than $1 billion thanks to construction on its newest terminal, something had to be done.

“The prudent approach is to look at our operating expenses and reduce our expenses to bring our finances in line,” Wheat said three months ago.

Now FOX40 has learned that Wheat’s 18-month strategy for bettering the budget is taking effect.

The airport has passed on its need to cutback by 15 percent to its vendors.

One of them is ABM – the company behind those cashiers, cleaning crews and parking workers.

We’ve learned from employees that ABM handed out layoff notices to workers mid-week, telling them their last day on the job would be Sunday.

When we tried to get ABM Corporate to comment on the layoffs, staff directed us back to the airport.

The airport directed us to ABM.

Employees facing unemployment were too afraid to speak on camera and their union, the Teamsters,  did not respond to our request for comment.

All airport vendors have been asked to make cuts – not just ABM.

Airport managers did send us a statement saying they do not expect any of the cutbacks to impact customer service.

One example?

The facility’s automating some payment lanes in the parking lots so you can get out faster using your credit card.