BUFFALO, N.Y. — Delaware North is eliminating 517 full-time positions.

The hospitality and food service operator headquartered in Buffalo says it’s clear that the global economy is not recovering as quickly as hoped, and it was important to pay out a severance to the employees.

While the company has 4,400 active employees right now, more than 6,800 are still on leave.

It says with reduced capacity at the airports, national parks, and sporting venues where it offers concessions, it wasn't able to sustain all of its employees.

The company pledges to continue to bring employees back from leave as it hopes that business conditions will improve.

Delaware North released a statement to Spectrum News, saying in part:

"It’s clear that the global economy is not recovering as quickly as hoped, so we are still unable to predict when our business will come back to pre-COVID-19 levels. As a result, today we unfortunately had to eliminate 517 full-time positions across the company because it had grown increasingly clear that their roles would not return in the foreseeable future."