Island Aviation, Bermuda's only private charter service, has not taken flight for insurers yet.

In the process of earning their wings, company director Anthony Philip yesterday explained that efforts were still underway to hammer out an agreement with local insurers.

The deal would enable the charter to offer air ambulance services to local residents.

"We are still in discussions with the insurers,'' Mr. Philip said, "We invited them to a presentation at our facility at the Airport where they toured the plane and had a good look at the features that would enable us to use it as an air ambulance.

"They had lots of questions for us, and we had quite a few for them, but we left it with both of us agreeing to pursue the matter further,'' he added.

The two sides have not met since that meeting on July 14 and Mr. Philip was careful not to jeopardise future negotiations.

He offered no clues as to when an agreement would be reached.

Candid that the service would not be able to cater to emergency evacuations, Mr. Philip said that insurance companies realised there was still a large savings to be made.

"As an example, we could take a group of six people who need MRIs from, the same hospital, to that hospital,'' he said.

"Up until now insurance companies have had to pay for a commercial airline ticket for each patient,'' he added.

"We could take the patients up and probably bring them back in the evening, providing a great savings in time and accommodation.'' The company has bought a six-seater IAI Westwind II which has a flight range of 2,800 miles. This would enable direct flights from Bermuda, to the Cayman Islands, Toronto, Chicago, Denver and even Caracas, Venezuela.

Island Aviation has already been chartered by corporate passengers who have been willing to pay $2,375 an hour. Flights to Delaware, New York, Bradley Field, Connecticut and Boston, have already run.

Island Aviation is also looking for two more flight crews for their operation and have advertised for two captains and two seconds-in-command.

Mr. Philip was clearly pleased that a Bermudian was among the interested applicants. "He does not live here and I would not want to divulge his name, but a Bermudian has applied,'' he said.

"Our challenge with hiring Bermudians is that we need people who can fly this particular type of aircraft,'' he said.

"We have always said that we will make them if we have to, so we are prepared to train Bermudians but that would be for the future.''