While Government is delighted US Airways is expanding its service to Bermuda, it is praying the airline pulls through its current financial crisis.

The airline has a $900-million federal loan which the company chairman has admitted might not be repaid, and rating agency Standard and Poor has just lowered its debt rating to B- from B on fears ? with warnings there could be a further reduction.

The airline, the seventh largest in the US, has retained Morgan Stanley to sell off some of its assets including its East Coast shuttle, and one of its three hubs: Pittsburgh, Charlotte, North Carolina, or Philadelphia, from where the airline has two daily services to Bermuda.

US Airways has been losing about $1 million a day since coming out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and Standard and Poor said its rating reflected its ?weak financial profile, vulnerability to increasing competition from low-cost airlines, and a relatively limited route structure?.

The airline has just announced a second daily service from Bermuda to Philadelphia, a resumed route from the Island to Washington Baltimore International, a new weekly seasonal service to Orlando, Florida, and a doubling of the weekly summer service to Fort Lauderdale.

The new route announcements have increased the number of weekly flights to Bermuda this year by 17 percent from 99 a week last year to 116 now.

The extra routes were hailed by the Transport Minister as ?remarkable? given that major US cities have seen their service cut and flights to the Caribbean have been slashed by 15-20 percent.

Dr. Brown told yesterday that he was concerned about the US Airways financial crisis, but he said all airlines were facing similar problems.

And he said was confident the Island would continue to have adequate service because it is such a lucrative route.

?I am concerned about the financial state of the entire airline industry,? said Dr Brown.

?I am aware of the reports about US Airways, but any airline we talk with is experiencing difficult times, and we are going ahead as though every carrier that is in trouble will try to recover, and that?s what we have to do.

?The Bermuda route is a lucrative one and we have no doubt that we will have adequate service.

?We are talking to every airline and hoping their financial troubles will improve.?