A US airline which stopped its flights to Bermuda earlier this year will resume daily operations from New York next year.

Premier Ewart Brown, Minister of Tourism, announced that Delta Airlines will run daily flights from LaGuardia airport, New York, to Bermuda in the summer months, starting on April 5. The new Delta service, which can carry up to 150 passengers, will mean Bermuda has non-stop service from all three New York airports and will be Delta?s fourth daily service to the Island.

Government has not offered the airline any subsidies or cash incentives in return for the daily service.

However Dr. Brown said government had agreed to spend $300,000 on advertising in the New York area but stated that no revenue guarantee was offered to the airline. Shadow Tourism Minister David Dodwell said such arrangements are not uncommon and welcomed the news that flights from LaGuardia would resume.

He said: ?Any additional air service from a major city is clearly a plus for the Island. It will bring us back to where we were two years ago when US Airways was flying from the airport.?

In March 2006 US Airways cancelled its seasonal flight from LaGuardia soon after Jet Blue began its service to the Island.

Co-chairman of the Bermuda Alliance for Tourism Mike Winfield commended the Premier and Department of Tourism for their part in helping to increase the number of visitors to the Island. He said: ?I believe with this new flight we will see is an incremental increase in visitors as opposed to any dilution on existing carriers. New York is the primary market for Bermuda and for a year we have not had a service out of LaGuardia.

?There are an enormous amount of flights from all over the US that come into LaGuardia and the fact that this is a later morning departure means that the connectivity is very good.?

During the summer months Delta will now have four daily flights to Bermuda: two from Atlanta, one from Boston and one from New York. The New York flight will depart at 10.30 a.m. and arrive on the Island at 1.45 p.m. It will return to New York at 2.45 p.m.