were last night slammed by a union chief.

And Derrick Burgess, president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, warned that axing the porters would damage Bermuda's bid to revitalise the tourism industry.

Mr. Burgess said: "We can't be doing this kind of thing when tourism is fragile and facing world-wide competition.

"We want to get numbers up -- you can't do that by taking services away. We should be adding services, not removing them.

"People, maybe with a couple of kids as well, don't want to be struggling with bags.'' It is understood airport chiefs want to end the skycap service for early morning and late night flights and concentrate on peak day time travel.

The move is believed to be driven by a desire to cut overtime payments and save cash.

There are currently around 20 skycaps, who are represented by the BIU.

AIRPORT FLY