Collector of Customs Winifred Fostine-Desilva has denied that long delays at the airport are the fault of a festering airport industrial dispute.

The claims were made by Opposition Tourism spokesman David Dodwell who said the hold up was damaging tourism.

He said passengers had again been delayed for more than two hours at the airport on Thursday, just weeks after a similar go-slow.

Mr. Dodwell called on Government to get a grip on the issue and said three hotel general managers had said the situation was a nightmare with guests in lines stretching back to the tarmac.

However Mrs. Fostine-Desilva said the problem had been caused by four scheduled flights and a charter flight arriving at the same time as two flights had been late.

She said all nine processing desks were working and that passengers were being dealt with at the rate of one every 35 seconds, well below the 45 second target set by world customs authorities.

She said automatic passport readers could be in operation within months, depending on cabinet approval, which would eliminate the need for clerks to type in passport details.

The airport is also exploring internet customs declarations which would allow people to go on-line abroad and pay tariffs before arriving.

Another option was kiosks to make self declarations in Bermuda. She said these options could be in operation by November at the earliest.

She said bottlenecks were caused by flight scheduling. She said: “Ideally arrivals would be staggered. It's made more complicated by an increase in executive jets. I don't think even Government can do anything about it.”

Two baggage belts handling four flights also caused delays but she said there was no room for further expansion.

She also said a balance had to be struck between inconvenience to waiting customers and the need to fully search for contraband and she pointed out the majority of drug seizures were off US flights.

Airport Operations Manager James Howes admitted there had been delays on Thursday despite a full compliment of staff as seven scheduled flights arrived within 90 minutes of each other along with an extra charter flight.

Asked if there was an overtime dispute going on he said: “I don't know that first hand.”

This view was shared by Transport Minister Dr. Brown who said: “We are doing everything we can to facilitate the rapid processing of passengers. Now it's up to the management of the customs department.”

Mr. Dodwell said passengers arriving on Thursday had spent more time in the line than on their flight.

He said: “Someone in Government needs to get to the bottom of this, it's simply not acceptable to have customers waiting that long.”

He said a number of repeat visitors had been hit by the action, further eroding the island's reputation which had been suffering over the last 20 years with more and more visitors complaining of poor value for money.

He said an airport source had told him the dispute centred around overtime hours worked and schedule changes. He said: “Everyone in charge denies it - the airport director, customs, the unions.

“It's the first busy weekend of the season, we should be ready for it. You can't market the tourism product if you don't deliver the product.”

Another airport source told The Royal Gazette that a labour dispute was at the heart of the delay but Mrs. Fostine-Desilva said her staff were working well.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox, whose department handles customs, said he had not been made aware of any problems at the airport but said he would look into the matter.

He said: “I am very surprised to hear that, I really am. My information was that people were quite happy with what was going on.”

He said he believed hiccups caused by airport reorganisation with customs staff being asked to do checking work previously carried out by Immigration officers had been smoothed over.

“I thought everything was resolved in terms of staffing,” said Mr. Cox.