The Board of the South East Regional Airport at Waterford has issued protective notice to its 22 employees, because of the airport's uncertain financial future.
The move follows Euroceltic Airways' announcement last week that it is going to withdraw its services from Waterford Airport from 26 January.
This will leave the airport with no contracted airline and no daily service to any other airport.
Euroceltic needed to attract 40,000 passengers on its Waterford/Luton service to break even, but only managed to fill 31,000 seats.
The South East Regional Airport is the only international airport in the region.
Meanwhile, the airport has told the Irish Coast Guard service that it cannot meet the cost of providing back-up services for a 24-hour search and rescue operation which was due to begin in January.
