British Airways local manager Phillip Troake this week admitted that the airline had not served the Island well this year.

But this was set to change with the introduction of the airline's newest aircraft and the addition of an extra flight which would see a 60 percent increase in capacity on the London to Bermuda run, he pointed out.

Mr. Troake told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "I would be the first to admit that we have not served Bermuda well this summer.'' He explained that the airline had been forced to reduce its number of flights from four to three due to problems within the company.

Then these three flights had experienced problems with delays and through all these problems Bermuda had suffered.

"But next year,'' he continued, "we will have a brand new service with a brand new aeroplane and four flights per week.'' The new long-range Boeing 777 will start a four flight per week schedule from Gatwick to the Island on March 28. It holds 269 seats, 55 more than the DC-10s which operate between Bermuda and the UK now.

The extra seats coupled with the extra weekly flight mean that capacity to the Island will leap 60 percent -- "a huge number of seats''.

A large portion of the increase is seen in the aeroplane's business class, continued Mr. Troake, with a jump from 35 to 56 seats.

"We recognise the importance of the international business sector and its members' travel needs,'' he said.

The increased space in the higher class will also lend itself to the vacation traveller, he added.

"A lot of passengers from the UK and Europe are people with disposable income and they tend to travel in premium cabins.

"We are seeing high yield tourism coming through Bermuda and there is no reason why that should not increase.'' Mr. Troake said what the airline was offering Bermuda next year would give tourism a real opportunity to increase its business.

"It is important that the entire community realises that this is a huge opportunity for tourism. We have responded to pleas to provide more capacity to the Island.

"It is not very often that destinations get such a significant increase in capacity coming on their routes.

"The challenge to businesses and tourism now is to fill those seats. British Airways will work in the UK and Europe to try and develop new business but I would like to see the Department of Tourism put a real effort in as well. We will try to work closely with them.'' Mr. Troake noted that efforts to promote business in the UK and Europe were bearing fruit and an increase could be seen in the number of passengers from these areas.

However these numbers were still small in comparison to other Caribbean countries such as Barbados but that was understandable as they had been working to attract those customers for a longer period of time.

A push to fill seats could also see airfares drop, he added.

"I would be the first to say that I would love to see fares come down.'' However the seats must be filled first of all and this was quite possible.

"Conventional wisdom in the UK says there is probably not that much new business out there. But I think there is. There is a lot of business going through the US that could go directly.'' Mr. Troake noted that the airline was making another contribution to Bermuda through its construction of a new lounge at the Bermuda International Airport.

The lounge, for first and business class travellers, would have a capacity for 90 people. It marked "a significant investment'' by the airline, he said.

PHILLIP TROAKE -- "I would be the first to admit that we have not served Bermuda well this summer.''