New flight connections from Europe to Gatwick are being explored by tourism bosses to increase air arrivals in Bermuda.

The Bermuda Tourism Authority has been in talks with British Airways about a connection from Frankfurt to Gatwick that would allow travellers to then catch the Bermuda flight.

CEO Bill Hanbury said the BTA has been in discussions with almost all of the airlines that currently service the Island to look at possible improvements. And he said there was big potential in Europe.

“If we can start moving the air arrival numbers north all the other things like increased tourism GDP and hospitality investment in building will follow,” he said.

“We would like to have a connection out of Europe into Gatwick that could connect with the BA flight into Bermuda.

“There is big potential out of Europe and we have been in talks with BA about looking at a Frankfurt connection. We are still in the very formative stages but we are aware of the potential to better access Europe.”

The BTA also revealed that a major Bermuda editorial is due to feature in Delta airlines in-house magazine this December.

It is one of a series of initiatives that the authority has launched with the airlines coming into Bermuda to boost air arrivals.

“The feature in Delta Sky is likely to be a eight to ten page feature in their in-house magazine that will be seen by more than 5.5 million readers,” he said. “We believe it’s a really valuable partnership and a great way to get the Bermuda product to a new market of executives and travellers that routinely travel with Delta.

“We have been working with Air Canada and West Jet and have collectively invested $800,000 into getting the Bermuda product better recognised in the Canadian market.

“Earlier this year we met with Jet Blue and they would like to be a year around service provider from Boston, which would be great for us.

“However there’s still more to accomplish in building demand for Bermuda out of the Boston market.”

Since its inception this year the BTA has been able to deal directly with the airlines to help revitalise the tourism industry.

“We have had meetings with all the major players,” Mr Hanbury said. “To the credit of the Airport Authority we have been allowed to deal directly with the airlines regarding marketing issues.

“Airline relationship building is critical, and our work over the last few months with BA was one of the main reasons that we were able to get the X Factor crews over here.

“We are speaking with the airlines all the time to see how we can boost numbers.”