Cabinet is expected to decide on Tuesday who will run Bermuda's Airport for the next five years.

Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons has said Bermuda received two strong bids for the contract, worth between $25 million and $50 million over five years.

It is understood that Dr. Gibbons, with help from Bermuda's Base transition team and officials from Airways Corporation of New Zealand and others, is ready to recommend to Cabinet which company should be awarded the deal.

The US Navy is quitting Bermuda, which must take over the Airport next June 1.

The winning contractor will provide air traffic control, weather and aeronautical information, ground electronic maintenance, and crash, fire and rescue services at the Airport.

Each contender -- Serco Aviation Services Inc. and AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp. -- can be said to have an inside track.

Serco Group plc in April purchased Thompson Hickling Aviation Inc. of Canada.

At that time, THA was working on a contract for the Bermuda Government to assess Airport equipment and write specifications for the Airport contract.

THA completed its work as the Canadian arm of Serco, the same company which submitted the proposal to run the Airport.

That fact, which some contractors viewed as a conflict of interest, was cited as a factor -- though not the deciding factor -- by some contractors who declined to bid.

As a single company offering a full range of air operations services, Serco could have a price advantage in the two-way contest.

The other bidder, AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp., is based in Columbia, Maryland.

But it has its own ties to Bermuda. Through its contract with the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, it has run the NASA tracking station at Cooper's Island in Bermuda since 1960.

And AlliedSignal's partner in the venture is Bermuda Aviation Services, the 100 percent Bermudian company which has been providing ground service, technical maintenance, and cargo customer service at the Airport since 1947.

AlliedSignal is also teamed with two other American companies -- AeroMet Inc.

for weather service and Barton ATC Inc. for air traffic control.

If price and other elements are close, AlliedSignal's Bermudian partner would give it an edge, though both companies are required to set out plans for Bermudianisation in their contract proposals.

Ottawa-based THA, now the Canadian arm of Serco, was formed in 1985 to provide Airport services and consulting. The only Canadian company with an air traffic control licence, it operates the former military Airport at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Its parent company, Serco Group plc, has more than 10,000 employees in 30 countries and annual sales of more than $400 million.

Serco-IAL Ltd., one of five companies in the Serco Group, manages government and private airports in several countries and conducts programmes "both to train and employ indigenous people,'' the company said in a prepared statement.

AlliedSignal Technical Services Corp., formerly Bendix Field Engineering Corp., employs about 7,000 people and holds 40 contracts worth between $5 million and $1.5 billion, providing technical, training, and managerial services to the United States government, foreign governments, and private industry.

From operation and support of Bendix-manufactured radar and communications equipment, the company expanded into aircraft control and landing systems for the US Navy, US Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The parent of AlliedSignal Technical Services, AlliedSignal Inc., employs 86,000 people in 40 countries and has annual sales of $12 billion. It is ranked 32nd on the list of Fortune 500 companies.