Extra mini buses for the airport are on order and could soon start cutting waiting times for arriving passengers.

Bermuda Host Ltd vice president Calworth Furbert said: "We have ordered some more buses, I am not quite sure how many more."

Asked about the problems of the taxi industry in shifting passengers he said: "I am in business to do business. If that means ordering more buses, I will do so.

"We have tourists waiting, waiting, waiting."

"I have been there 37 years and I know what goes on down there. We had more tourists before and fewer taxis but now we have fewer tourists and more taxis and we have more problems. Why?

"Something is wrong somewhere."

And Bee Line Transportation general manager Harrison Simons said: "We have ordered three more buses. They are coming shortly. We have four buses at the moment."

He said there had been a problem with moving airport passengers for years and he backed taxi spokesman Lee Tucker's call for more communication about incoming flights.

Mr. Simons said: "Sometimes there's no schedule saying when the airlines are going to be coming in." He said dispatchers should be told about passenger numbers on incoming flights.

However Airport General Manager James Howes said the schedules were well known and had not changed since May.

"I could understand if a charter flight came in and no one was expecting it but when the regular flights come in at the regular times they should not come as any surprise. I find this a bit of a reach. We know what flights are coming in and approximately how many passengers yet we have seen little if any cabs."

He said some days there were not enough cabs to move 20 people let alone 200 people.

Mr. Howes said he expected the situation to be much better next summer when the new buses were on stream.