succeed where a rival operation has so far failed.

That was the claim yesterday of the local head of US-based Mid Pacific Air Corporation, which is due to start its service on February 2.

Mr. Graeme Seaton was undaunted by the temporary suspension in late October of rival Bermuda Air Charters' air cargo flight from Florida.

BAC, a locally-owned firm which had started operations only five months earlier, has never been profitable.

"To have carried on through the winter would have been suicidal,'' said BAC boss Mr. Willie Forbes.

The company is reformatting its business plan and hopes to recommence its service in April.

Mr. Seaton's confidence in Mid Pacific's new service is based on wide differences between his company's operations and that of BAC.

BAC ran once-a-week flights from Tampa using a large DC-8 aircraft, which had the capacity to carry up to 83,000 lbs. of cargo.

Mid Pacific, however, will go for greater frequency of flights using a much smaller British Aerospace 146 Quiet Trader plane, which can carry only 26,000 lbs.

of payload.

Initially, the BAe 146 will fly twice a week to Bermuda from New Jersey and New York, but that is due to be increased to three flights a week in March.

By the summer, BAC plans to have four flights per week, all out of JFK airport, in New York, operating from Monday to Thursday, inclusive.

Mr. Seaton said Mid Pacific had several advantages over other organisations which had run air cargo services in the past.

"First of all, we're a scheduled service and not a charter service,'' he said. "We will run the service as scheduled and prove our reliability and win business that way.

"Secondly, we feel the BAe 146 is the right size for the Bermuda market.

"It's better to have 26,000 lbs. coming in two, three or four times a week on a regular basis than to have a DC-8 with 80,000 lbs. plus arriving once a week. That's too much capacity and too little frequency.'' Mid Pacific was an established company which has been operating successful air cargo services in the US for eight years, he said.

Mid Pacific's other flights within the US and its extensive trucking network could link up with its Bermuda service to the advantage of local customers.

The use of the BAe 146 would save money since it was "the most New air cargo service From Page 11 cost efficient aircraft currently available'', said Mr. Seaton, who previously worked for Pan Am for 30 years.

But the potential profitability of a service using a plane as small as the BAe 146 was questioned by BAC boss Mr. Forbes.

He said BAC had also looked at operating the BAe 146 on a more frequent basis but had determined that such a service was not economically viable.

"Maybe they've come up with another formula and we wish them luck,'' said Mr.

Forbes.

"But we found that a small aircraft did not offer the economies of scale that were required. We could not see how it could work.'' BAC stopped its DC-8 service at the end of October because flights because of lack of business from Bermuda's businesses.

Flights were carrying, on average, less than the 60,000 lbs. of cargo per trip that was needed for the business to break even.

At one stage, BAC even started running a smaller Boeing 727 on the route in order to reduce losses.

"It was impossible for us to make money using the 727 because it has a capacity of less than 60,000 lbs.,'' said Mr. Forbes. "But it cost us less on expenses.'' BAC's flights had a per-trip yield of 41 cents per one pound of cargo carried, he said.

Mr. Forbes did not want to give too many details of the firm's new relaunched service but said it will involve running two flights a week from Tampa using a smaller plane.

He added: "We will kick off again in April with a smaller plane. It will be a different type of service altogether and one which can indeed be profitable.'' In the meantime, the company was attempting to broaden its financial base to make it stronger, he added.

Mr. Graeme Seaton.