To meet that deadline, Bermuda would likely have to hire contractors to perform most Airport services, Management and Technology Minister the Hon.

Grant Gibbons told The Royal Gazette .

Although the official pull-out of the US Navy is not until September of 1995, Sen. Gibbons said the Island had to work to a much tighter time frame.

"The Navy has actually told us that in order to be out by September of 1995, they would like to cease air traffic control operations by June,'' Sen.

Gibbons told The Royal Gazette .

"They're going to have to pack up and start to wind down their operations.'' The same earlier date would apply to other services the Navy provided at the Civil Air Terminal, like weather forecasting, emergency services, navigational aids, security, and search and rescue.

"It's going to be tight, but it's not unreasonable to be able to take over those responsibilities in that time frame,'' he said.

Sen. Gibbons, who chairs Government's air services committee and sits on the main Base negotiating committee, used air traffic control to illustrate the time constraints the committees faced.

"You can't just pull an air traffic controller out of Toronto or Boston and pop them down here, even if they're trained,'' he said. "They have to be qualified in the Airport to which they are providing the services.'' Airports had unique weather patterns, physical obstructions, and runway characteristics that had to be learned.

Depending on the experience of the air traffic controllers, an extra two to six months of on-site training would be required, he said.

"That effectively means we have to have identified air traffic controllers, or a certain number, to be in training by January or March.'' It was believed at least one or two Bermudians with air traffic control experience could be among the first group to work at the Airport, with more added after training.

The exact number of air traffic controllers needed was not yet known. The Navy had 32, but that was for a 24-hour a day, 365-day-a-year service operating to a 180-mile radius, which Bermuda might not need. In all, the Navy used 150 to 200 people to provide Bermuda Airport services.

It was up to the committee to decide how the Airport services would be provided, but the short time frame made hiring contractors the most likely option, he said.

There were major international companies like BAA in the United Kingdom that provided air traffic control and other services for a fee.

The contract would likely have to be in place in early fall, meaning the specifications would have to be ready by May or June so the jobs could go out to tender.

"We'll be looking at each function to determine which of those we may try to do ourselves and which we may wish to contract out.'' Firefighting and weather forecasting were two services which Bermuda might choose to provide itself, he said.

It was too early to predict what it would cost Bermuda to operate the Airport.

The Navy had cited a $10 million annual cost, but it was not clear exactly how that figure was arrived at, and whether it accounted for Airport revenues.