service.

And airline officials said planned changes in BA's non-stop route to Bermuda are expected to improve service for businessmen and much-sought-after European visitors.

As of May 9, British Airways will drop its Tampa extension from Bermuda and depart from Gatwick for Bermuda at 3 p.m. The flight will arrive in Bermuda at 6.20 p.m. and leave at 10 p.m., arriving back in London at 8.45 the next morning.

BA's senior general manager at Gatwick, Mr. Dan Brewin, who came to Bermuda to address some 100 local travel agents at The Princess Hotel about the changes and the benefits of Gatwick, said: "With those timings there are all sorts of new connections that you can make at Gatwick, particularly from Europe and also from the rest of the United Kingdom to the Bermuda service.

"We think that's important to the route. We think that's important to Bermuda too, for the businessman and for the tourist.

"The numbers show that this route can be viable. All we need is to get the support of the Bermudian public. The Government is behind us, the tourism people are very pleased with what we're doing, particularly the connections to Europe areas they're targeting.'' The airline's local general manager Mr. Philip Troake agreed, adding that if the changed route is well supported, BA could possibly make a small profit.

BA lost about $20 million on its Bermuda route during its last financial year which ended March 31, 1991.

Mr. Troake said it is too early to tell how BA fared in Bermuda for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1992.

But he said: "The indications based on the way it looked at the end of January, is that routes through Bermuda for the financial year ending March 31 will lose about $10 million -- that's around half of loss of the previous year.

"We hope to put roughly the same capacity we had in the past and a little bit more, particularly in the winter.

"And we hope to prove the viability of what we're doing and toward the end of the summer make some kind of commitment as to the kind of increase we're going to put in next year. If we do well this summer, I don't think there's any doubt we'll put more seats here.'' BA's director of sales in New York, Mr. Michael Jayne, stressed the importance of keeping travel agents up-to-date on the airline's "range of product offerings'' such as the Privileged Traveller programme which offers senior citizens a 10 percent discount on airfare and other traveling features.

"We will make sure that Bermuda agents are offered the same benefits as American agents from the point of view of advanced bookings or benefit discounts offered to the public,'' he said.

Mr. Jayne, who took over the position in New York last month, said: "We're also here to talk about Gatwick because we're conscious that still not enough Bermudians know enough about Gatwick''.

Mr. Troake said there are still a lot of misconceptions about being unable to go anywhere else from Gatwick.

But, he noted, "there are a huge range of connections available out of Gatwick''.

"There is also easy access to London by train from Gatwick,'' Mr. Jayne added. "Once you clear Customs with your bags, you can be in London Victoria in 35-40 minutes.''