Flights to Bermuda from Philadelphia and Baltimore could be affected if US Airways staff strike in the new year.

US Airways flight attendants voted to strike -- only if authorized by federal mediators in the new year -- but it will be the beginning of February before any possible action is likely.

The attendants have to return to the negotiating table in January, and if they are allowed to leave mediation, there has to be a 30-day cooling off period before any action is allowed.

During the winter, US Airways flies to and from Philadelphia and Baltimore to the Island. A seasonal service to Charlotte starts in the Spring, but the Bermuda-La Guardia flight has now been dropped.

US Airways attendants are currently under orders from the National Mediation Board, which oversees labour relations in the transportation industry, to continue contract negotiations with the airline. Mediated talks are to resume on January 3.

If the board was to declare later that the talks were at an impasse, the flight attendants still would have to wait out a mandatory 30-day cooling-off period before a strike could begin.

About 10,000 US Airways flight attendants are working under a contract that expired at the end of 1996.