Business leaders have urged British Airways management and staff to resolve their differences and avoid a strike which could have a devastating impact in Bermuda.

They fear the Bermudian business community?s vital connection with the UK and Europe could be thrown into temporary disarray if action leads to flight cancellations and major delays.

Eleventh-hour talks are currently underway at BA after 11,000 cabin crew threatened to stage a walkout over work conditions later this month. Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) members have vowed to halt hundreds of short and long-haul flights from Gatwick, Heathrow and Glasgow if they are unable to reach a deal with BA bosses.

If flights between Gatwick and Bermuda were cancelled, passengers would have to make inconvenient diversions via North America. BA officials remain hopeful an agreement can be reached and have described talk of a strike as ?premature?.

Tourism chiefs and international business leaders in Bermuda yesterday called for staff and management to come to an agreement to prevent industrial action.

Bermuda International Business Association members are due to attend a number of key conferences with leading global figures in Geneva, Paris and London over the next few weeks.

Chief executive officer Cheryl Packwood said they would still attend the meetings ? to discuss banking, hedge funds and insurance issues ? even if the flights were cancelled.

But she added that travelling via North America would be a serious inconvenience. Mrs. Packwood said many Bermudian businesses also rely on direct flights to the UK. She said: ?Striking would be a potential disruption. For ourselves, we would have difficulty in terms of travel to conferences.

?Bermuda to London is a great flight for Bermudian businesses. The connection, the timing, everything about it is right and works well.?

Mrs. Packwood said it was impossible to say how serious the effect would be in Bermuda until the nature of the industrial action is confirmed. ?I?m hoping that they will resolve things and I?m expecting that they will,? she added. ?If BA is closed for two weeks we will be in difficulty, but we don?t know if a strike will happen or how long it would go on for.

?The optimum solution is for management and staff to come to an agreement.?

Chamber of Commerce executive director Diane Gordon said: ?If a strike happens it?s going to inconvenience a lot of people.

?We don?t have enough competition which could provide other connections to the UK or Europe, so cancellations would certainly have a big impact on businesses here.

?The connection with Europe is very important for Bermuda?s businesses ? and BA is greatly supported by the Bermuda economy as well.

?We would encourage everybody concerned to get this resolved as quickly as possible.?

Mike Winfield, co-chairman of the Bermuda Alliance for Tourism, said hotels could not afford to lose potential tourists, particularly at this time of the year.

Mr. Winfield, who chairs the group?s airline committee, said: ?The UK is a good market for us in the shoulder months from now until April.

?It would be quite serious if this was impacted upon by a strike. BA is the only airline flying from the UK or Europe at all and therefore is vital.

?Not just from a tourism point of view, but from a business perspective as well. BA is a highly utilised airline route for people doing business in Bermuda.

?We will be watching the situation carefully, hoping a strike doesn?t materialise. I would certainly hope both sides could resolve their differences.

?In most parts of the world, strikes have become the very last resort. We hope that negotiations can work because if they don?t it would be very bad news for us.?

T&G members are voting this week over whether to take industrial action after claiming BA capped pay by limiting promotion opportunities and forced staff to work while unwell under new sickness absence rules.

The result of the secret ballot will be known by tomorrow and staff will be informed on Monday. If it went ahead, the strike could start a week later.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh has previously said: ?We will continue talking with the unions to try to resolve this situation and to avoid any kind of disruption to our customers and staff.?