early morning departures from Bermuda and eventually throw 23 full and part-time staff out of work.

"For the first week we'd probably be busier than ever trying to take care of customers and rebook flights, but after five days I couldn't say what would happen,'' the airline's local general manager Carole DeCouto said yesterday.

"Everyone here is very, very concerned about the impact a strike would have on the Island and on our customers.'' Talks between American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Association representing 9,000 pilots, have recently bogged down and will shift to Washington D.C. for "super-arbitration'' on Monday in an attempt to break the impasse.

Pilots have given American until midnight, February 15, to meet its demands for increased pay and restrictions on the use of regional air carriers or face strike action, airline spokesman Al Becker told The Royal Gazette .

"There's a wide difference on what are essentially very complex issues,'' he said, adding American has agreed to put the dispute to binding arbitration but the Pilots have made no such offer.

A strike would have a "tremendously negative impact'' throughout the travel industry and smaller tourist-oriented destinations such as Bermuda would be hit hard, he said.

In the event of a strike, ticket holders would be the first priority and everything possible would be done to rebook passengers on alternate carriers, he said.

"American has and always will stand behind its customers,'' he added.

American Airlines operates one 7.10 a.m. departure daily from Bermuda to Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The return flight leaves JFK at 4.30 p.m. and arrives in Bermuda at 7.40 p.m.

The company augments its service to the Island as the tourism season picks up and this year is planning on adding two more daily flights from New York City and Boston starting March 23, said Ms DeCouto.

"We're all praying for an 11th-hour solution,'' she said.

UNIONS UNS