Bermuda has turned to New Zealand for help in taking over the Civil Air Terminal.

And Government has decided the Airport will remain a round-the-clock operation with air traffic control extending to a wide radius, Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Sen. Gibbons said two experts from the Airways Corporation of New Zealand Ltd.

were to start work in Bermuda within two weeks.

Government was hoping they would bring some of their corporate philosophy with them, he said.

Since it was established as a state-owned enterprise in 1987, Airways Corporation has turned Kiwi air operations from a cost centre to a money-maker, Sen. Gibbons said.

The company, which bills itself as the world's first fully-commercial air traffic services provider, reportedly posted a $30-million profit in its first four years of operation, after Government suffered a $21-million loss the year before it was set up.

At the same time, it lowered fees for navigational and weather information.

"They're an interesting model for us,'' Sen. Gibbons said of New Zealand's Airways Corporation.

Mr. Toby Farmer, Airways Corporation's senior air traffic systems engineer, is to start a five-month contract in Bermuda next week. He is to work as a "procurements specialist'' as Government develops tender documents and awards a contract to run the Airport.

Another senior employee from the New Zealand company was to start a one-year contract within two weeks, Sen. Gibbons said. This person would be Government's main technical adviser as Bermuda took over the Airport from the US Navy.

It was hoped he would also help train a Bermudian to replace him.

Together, the two contracts would cost Government about $275,000, Sen. Gibbons said.

The experts from New Zealand would take "a hand-off'' from Thompson Hickling Aviation Inc. of Canada, which was to be finished its Airport work by the end of June.

THA was being paid just under $100,000 for work that included developing specifications for the air operations contract.

The US Navy is pulling out of Bermuda in September of 1995, and has said it will stop providing air traffic control and other Airport services on June 1.

The contract to run the Airport is to be put out to tender in July.

Government hopes to have a contract signed by the end of October.

Airways Corporation was "particularly of interest'' to Government because it recently completed a major modernisation project which involved numerous purchases and other contracts, Sen. Gibbons said. And because the company had no interest in bidding on the contract to run the Airport, it could be relied on for objective advice, he said.

As well as procurement, Mr. Farmer was an expert on radar and related systems and meteorology.

While New Zealand had a much wider air space than Bermuda did, Sen. Gibbons hoped the Island could take advantage of its strategic location in the Atlantic Ocean to increase Airport revenues.

That was why Bermuda would keep "en route'' air traffic control to a 180-mile radius, though some Airports extended their control to 60 miles or less. The US Federal Aviation Administration had offered to share costs with Bermuda and help with training if the Island kept its present wide-ranging radar.

Talks with the FAA were continuing, and it was not yet clear how the "en route'' system would be operated.

But Bermuda would have it, and 24-hour staffing of the control tower came with the en route system, he said. Staffing could be reduced at night and hours of operation could still possibly be reduced in future, he said.

One proposal was that Bermuda would electronically transmit its radar information to New York, where an FAA air route traffic control centre handles aeroplanes in Bermuda air space.

Another option was for Bermuda to operate its own en route system, and collect fees from airlines that used it. The FAA is to start charging fees for its services when it is transformed into a new corporation, the US Air Traffic Services Corp. If Bermuda delegated to the FAA, it would want to be sure the FAA was not charging rates that would discourage carriers from using Island air space, Sen. Gibbons said.

GIBBONS: From cost centre to money-maker.