Direct Saturday flights to Detroit will be available from April, Transport Minister Ewart Brown announced yesterday.

Northwest Airlines, the world?s fourth largest airline, will inaugurate service from its ultra-modern new terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan on April 9.

Dr. Brown said: ?This is truly a momentous event ? not only is Bermuda gaining a major new gateway city which will give an added boost to our tourism product, but our fine airport will once again be serviced by Northwest, who last flew to Bermuda more than a decade ago.

?The very name Northwest Airlines brings new prestige and increased awareness to Bermuda International Airport.

?Last July, when Airport General Manager, Mr. James Howes, and I first met with Northwest officials at their Minneapolis corporate headquarters, we were impressed by their interest in Bermuda and their great confidence in Bermuda as a potential destination for Northwest.?

He said a direct Detroit-Bermuda summer service will help make Bermuda a convenient and appealing international destination in the ?Motor City? region and beyond with an excellent network of convenient connections at Detroit.

The new weekly service will operate on Saturdays from April 9 to August 20.

Northwest will use a 148-seat Airbus A-320 jet departing Detroit at 10:25 a.m. and arriving in Bermuda at 2:42 p.m.

The return flight will depart Bermuda at 3:50 p.m. and arrive in Detroit at 6 p.m.

He said Bermuda had a romantic cachet even among those who had never visited or seen a picture of the place but it was not being sufficiently exploited.

?The issue is why is the secret kept? We are trying to take the lid off and expose Bermuda to more people. We are doing it through efforts such as this.

?If we can get people in Michigan and Minneapolis to start to consider Bermuda as the place to visit then we may be able to extend this to year-round service.

?When they are cold, freezing and want to play golf Bermuda will be a reasonable option but first we have to introduce them to Bermuda.

?Northwest wants to do that in April and we have agreed.?

He said the new route gave a different option for Islanders heading to the States and also would help attract people from the Minneapolis area to Bermuda who could connect through Detroit.

?Other flights connect from the West Coast through Detroit. It represents great connectivity and we think stands a great chance of being successful.?

He said there was a very interesting affluent African-American demographic in the Detroit area but he said Government was not targeting any particular demographic but simply wanted to boost numbers.

?I think this flight has great potential but the question will be how long they take to respond to the call,? Dr. Brown said.

He said last year?s flight from Chicago got off to a sluggish start and never quite gained full momentum.

But he said changes in the marketing strategy with an earlier promotion would help.

Government is not subsidising the flight through a minimum revenue guarantee.

?We were pleasantly surprised they were sufficiently confident they can do it without it.?

However, with no subsidy Government has no leverage on price, explained Dr. Brown.

Only the American Airlines Miami flight currently has that minimum revenue guarantee with Tourism putting on its biggest ever pre-flight promotion push to help that.

?I will be going next week to a Miami heat game where Bermuda will be centre-piece on centre court at half time.?

He said the arrival of Shaquille O?Neal at Miami Heat which has helped boost that team?s profile with knock-on benefits for Bermuda.

Bermuda International Airport now has nine airlines serving it ? a 50 percent increase in the past three years, said Dr. Brown.

?We now enjoy non-stop air service to 14 gateway cities, as compared to ten three years ago.

?The Ministry?s Air Service Development strategy, to increase the number of airline flights and non-stop gateway cities to Bermuda and obtain lower air fares, continues to enjoy extraordinary success.?

Bermuda has direct flights to New York, Newark, Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Baltimore, London and Toronto with summer service to Orlando, Chicago and Detroit.

However budget airline JetBlue, which has been courted by Bermuda for some time, will not be coming this year.

Airline spokesman Gareth Edmondson said Bermuda was still on the shortlist but only after the airline had taken delivery of new 100-seater planes which won?t arrive until the end of Bermuda?s tourism season.

Dr. Brown also said the airline wanted more bed capacity in Bermuda before committing.

Asked about the critical financial state of US Airways Dr. Brown said such problems were common across the industry.

?Almost all of the US carriers are in the hospital but some are sitting in the intensive care unit. So we go day to day hoping they can work their way out of their predicament.

?US Airways got a favourable judgement yesterday having its loan deadline extended through June.

?If in the event we lose US Airways we are confident that others will pick up the slack. So we are concerned but optimistic.?