attracting a regular tourist flight from continental Europe.

It is thinking of agreeing to share any losses on such a venture. Such a "risk-sharing'' plan has been recommended by advisers to Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan.

The Premier's Commission on Competitiveness has backed the idea. A joint European airline venture has also been pushed by by the Progressive Labour Party.

Last night Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge revealed such a flight could be set up for 1995.

"We have looked at it several times. We did have one that was going to come on line this year.

"We hope it might happen next year. We have high hopes we will have an additional carrier out of Europe.'' Government would only pay out if a certain percentage of seats was not filled, he said.

Discussions had taken place two years ago, but the price had been too high and the risk too great.

"We looked at this some time ago. But I wasn't prepared to commit the taxpayers of this Country to an awful lot of money.'' Government has long been keen to get a regular flight from continental Europe.

Such a flight would probably come from Germany, the world's largest vacation market, where the Department of Tourism is now working to raise awareness of the Island.

The airlines task force of the Commission on Competitiveness has recommended that Bermuda enter a risk-sharing arrangement to open up Europe.

Banker Mr. James Masters, head of the Commission's tourism committee, said: "In the general discussions which came out of the airlines task force it was quite clear that if we were going to get an airline to come in here then this idea of risk-sharing had to be looked at, and probably some sort of risk-sharing would have to be undertaken to encourage a European carrier to come in.

"It's the economics of it. There isn't anybody out there who's looking to come out of Frankfurt or Brussels or Amsterdam without some sharing of that risk.'' Such arrangements were fairly common in charter flights, he said. "It's a way of introducing a new market to a new location. But the financial considerations might be quite great.'' Shadow tourism minister Mr. David Allen said his party had been calling for a joint venture with a European airline, preferably German, for some time. But the Tourism Minister had opposed the PLP's plan.

Condor -- the charter part of Germany's Lufthansa airline -- might be a possible partner, he said.

A 200-seat flight would only need about 120 passengers a week to make it viable, he added.

Aggressive sales campaigning would be needed in Europe first. And package tours would have to be set up involving golf, deep-sea fishing, tennis and scuba.