Passengers travelling on the new USA 3000 flight to Baltimore will have to go through US Customs when they arrive in Baltimore ? there will be no pre-clearance in Bermuda.

Airport General Manager James Howes said: "This was understood all along that US Customs (in Bermuda) closes at 5 p.m. and the only way passengers could be pre-cleared in Bermuda is if the US Government approved extended hours of operation for US Customs.

"The flight is scheduled to leave at 7.50 p.m., so rather than paying them overtime, passengers will go through immigration in Baltimore because there US Customs does not close until 10 p.m.

"US Department of Homeland Security turned down pre-clearance because they could not see justification for paying US customs workers overtime."

The USA 3000 flight is due to leave Bermuda on Tuesday and Friday nights.

Earlier this week it was announced that a new Continental flight scheduled to begin this summer was pulled by the airline.

Mr. Howes said: "US Customs in Bermuda opens at 6 a.m. and the Continental flight to Newark was scheduled to leave at 6.45 a.m. However, Continental did not feel that 45 minutes was enough time to process the passengers.

"Continental Airlines has applied to US Customs to consider opening up earlier to accommodate the departure."

The flight was scheduled to take off on June 11 from Newark, New Jersey.

It was due to leave Newark at 6.45 p.m. and arrive in Bermuda at 10 p.m and stay overnight with the outbound flight leaving at 6.45 a.m.

This flight was the ninth new flight added to the 2004 summer flight schedule, which includes flights to Chicago, Orlando, and Baltimore.

The other two Continental flights will continue to run and leave at 8.50 a.m. and noon.

When asked what the rush was to announce the new flights without having all the details ironed out Mr. Howes said: "There was no rush. The flights were already in the computer reservation system, they were being sold to the public, so we thought the announcement was timely."