British Airways announced yesterday it will have an extra flight this winter, and new carrier USA 3000 it is looking at more routes into Bermuda from the United States. Bermuda has seen an increase in flights this summer of 20 percent over last year and the airlines have told they are reasonably happy with bookings so far. BA normally has three winter flights, but from the end of October it will keep four flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

BA?s Bermuda manager Philip Troake said yesterday: ?In introducing an additional flight this winter we are responding to the business community who have told us that there is a demand for the extra capacity.?

Low cost airline USA 3000, is launching a twice weekly Bermuda to Baltimore flight from May 7 with round-trip tickets as low as $235.80, including tax. The service is due to run year-round, but USA 3000 director of contracts and services Trevor Sadler told : ?If the tourism industry supports this, we will continue to look at other gateways into Bermuda. We must satisfy ourselves that there is a reasonable demand to be supplied and prove there is a desire for these low fares.?

Mr. Sadler, who arrived in Bermuda on Wednesday to speak to hoteliers about the flight, said he was quite encouraged by bookings so far.

?At this moment I feel quite confident that forward bookings are beginning to look good,? he said. ?The beginning of May is soft but the latter part of May is coming on nicely and already same dates in the future will sell out without any problems.

?The rate of knots of bookings is good although it has slowed down a bit, but we feel we will get where we need to be.

?I was hoping for a little bit more for the first flight but we have three weeks to go before that comes on.?

American Airlines is introducing an extra daily flight to New York?s John F. Kennedy Airport five days a week ? except Tuesday and Wednesday ? which begins on July 1.

The company?s Bermuda manager Judith Butterfield said the flights were about 50 percent full ?which is not bad considering it is still early for July?.

And American is introducing a daily service to LaGuardia on Saturdays, beginning on May 1.

?So far loads are not quite 50 percent and we are happy with that,? she said.

?It?s not bad considering it is a brand new service and we have US Airways competing with us. So it will catch on and 50 percent is looking not bad.?

United Airlines is introducing a new weekly service to Chicago running from May 1 to September 11 for a $239 round-trip. Spokesman Steve Roth said the company generally didn?t give details on booking trends but it would have a better idea in a few weeks. US Airways has introduced by far the biggest number of new flights to Bermuda this year ? one extra per week to Philadelphia, one per week to Fort Lauderdale, one per week to Orlando, and seven per week to Baltimore.