Low-cost carrier Zoom Airlines may find out in a matter of days if it has been given clearance to fly the most direct route between Bermuda and London.

And the Royal Gazette can exclusively reveal the newcomer intends, during the winter months, to "fill in" on the two days when rival British Airways does not fly, thereby maintaining a daily service for every day of the week between Bermuda and London. Zoom will provide the flights on Mondays and Fridays.

Since Zoom started its twice-a-week service last month it has been forced to take a longer flight path up the east coast of North America, across Greenland and down past Iceland and Scotland to reach London Gatwick.

As a result it takes passengers around nine hours to make the trip, some two hours longer than rival British Airways which takes the most direct trans-Atlantic route.

Rather than wait for the all-clear to use the same flight corridor as BA, Zoom decided to go ahead with its new service and use the longer route while it awaited a decision through the UK's Civil Aviation Authority and the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Yesterday the CAA was meeting in a building opposite the headquarters of Zoom and it was believed the Zoom flight path application was on the agenda.

However it may take days if not longer for an announcement to be made.

In the meantime Zoom Airlines managing director Jonathan Hinkles told the Royal Gazette>the company was more than happy with the way the low-price service had caught the attention of travellers.

"Despite the longer routing at the moment the bookings are phenomenal. Quite a lot of the flights in July and August are full. September is looking good. We're very happy how it has gone and the advance bookings are ahead of where we thought we'd be," said Mr. Hinkles.

The boss of Zoom said the company was doing all it can to make passengers journeys as comfortable as possible while it is taking the nine-hour UK-Bermuda flight route.

The company will be launching its winter schedule in the next few days and has decided to offer its flights on Mondays and Fridays, which are the two days that British Airways does not normally fly when it reverts from a seven-day schedule to a five-day schedule during the winter months.

Mr. Hinkles said: "We'll operate on the days when BA is not flying, that way we will be complementing one another. It makes good sense to schedule flights that way."