Things were a little different in 1947, when Bermuda Aviation Services first opened its doors.

The in-flight meals were not pre-prepared and placed on little plastic dishes on individual trays -- nor were they heated in a microwave.

Each passenger would have been served by their own purser, using the finest silver, china and linen.

Each course would have been laid out silver service-style, one after the other, no matter what the turbulence.

No expense would have been spared for the wealthy passengers, in a time when travel was only for the very rich, and long-haul really was a long haul.

The company was formed in 1947 by a group of local businessmen to supply all the aviation services to the airport.

Its remit included not only the supply of food, but the repair and supply of spares for the craft and the supply of labour and transportation for the planes.

It also handled passengers, planned flights and did the weather.

While the level of service demanded by the passengers may have been a bit different back then, the planes today still need the same on-the-ground service.

Eugene Bean, the president and chief executive officer of Bermuda Aviation Services Ltd (BAS), said: "You still need to off-load bags and freight, clean the aircraft, off-load stores, load new stores and food. The difference was that then it was done manually.

"Today we are more efficient. We have machines and we have to deal with many more flights and a lot more baggage.'' Every day BAS deal with the business of servicing between ten and 12 planes landing. On top of this, 1,500 private jets land every year ferrying the rich and not-so-famous businessmen to and from meetings.

The only service it does not supply that it did in the 1940s is ground transportation.

Over the years as the Airport has developed, and the need for restaurants arose, the company took on their running.

After many years of managing the on-ground services, in the early 90s, however, BAS was forced to look long and hard at how it ran its business.

The company became aware of the fragility of the ground services when the catering revenues fell by 50 percent and the numbers of tourist began to decline.

"I would say that five or six years ago the company did not perform well financially. The results were mediocre. To be honest we couldn't be looked at seriously at that time,'' said Mr. Bean.

The result was diversification to give the company a stable base that would not simply rely on tourism.

It bought Crow Lane Bakery, and followed this up by developing the private jet facility at the Airport, with its own Customs and immigration.

"The reason for our success is we did things better, more efficiently and with a purpose. And we did bring our staff on board, which brought profit-sharing in from the ground up.'' Since 1992, the company has seen its net profits rise from $122,000 to $1.5 million this year.

In 1992 the company share price was between $2.50 and $3.50. This rose to $4.00 in 1996, but last year saw a rise to $7.60. This week the company hit its 52-week high, with the shares rising $1.00 to close at $8.00.

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