USAir axed the Bermuda-Baltimore round trip.

Around six used alternative carriers, honouring USAir tickets.

But most caught the airline's other daily flights out of Bermuda to reach their destination.

The detour meant a delay of several hours by travelling via Charlotte, North Carolina, or New York.

The airline's fourth daily service, to Philadelphia, was also operating yesterday.

USAir's local customer services manager Mr. Herbert Siggins said the Bermuda-Baltimore trip would be discontinued indefinitely throughout the strike.

"Any disruption is a nuisance to our passengers, but we were able to accommodate them today,'' said Mr. Siggins.

"We managed to get them to their destination on the same day, although there may be several hours' delay.'' Mr. Siggins said local hotels were told about the rearrangements early yesterday, and the disruption had been kept to a minimum.

"The phones today have been remarkably quiet,'' he added.

Tourism Director Mr. Gary Phillips said officials had been monitoring USAir developments during the weekend "to ensure that the impact on Bermuda would be as little as possible.

"Bermuda has been fortunate in that only one flight has been affected. So far, the impact has been minimal.'' Yesterday's strike action involved thousands of ground crew members.

They disrupted the airline's service in dozens of cities in the dispute over wage concessions and work rules.

Early yesterday, USAir implemented its contingency plan, slashing the number of flights to about 60 percent of the usual 2,600 daily departures.

The USAir Express and USAir Shuttle services were not affected.

Arrangements had been made with other carriers to accept passengers whose flights had been cancelled.

Among those honouring USAir tickets are Northwest and Continental airlines.

USAir said its daily overseas flights to London, Frankfurt, and Paris were not hit.

The strike affects about 8,300 union workers who perform ground support roles, in addition to maintenance.

In an attempt to bolster its financial standing USAir is seeking approval of a partnership with British Airways.

USAir is asking all employees for wage, benefit and work rule concessions, so it can cut costs by about $400 million this year.