British Airways expects the last of its passengers stranded by closed airspace due to volcanic ash will be off the Island today.

Yesterday Marianne Wilcox, manager of British Airways, said the cancellations, which have cost the airline about 15 to 20 million pounds a day, stranded about 300 visitors in Bermuda. Approximately 500 Bermudians have also been affected by the flight disruption which started on Thursday last week after plumes of ash erupted from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

The first flight from London arrived in Bermuda on Thursday and Ms. Wilcox said that two full flights returned to the UK and they hoped that by the end of the weekend that everyone who was due to leave the Island would have left.

She said: "The last two flights have been completely full going out. We are not totally full today (Friday), but we know we will have some people who will come on standby because they haven't been able to book.

"If there are people still here and need to get back they can come down and we are pretty sure they would be able to get on.

"Our first priority is to get our customers back home. It was quite unexpected and completely out of our control. We had to cancel 4,000 flights over the six-day period.

"The flights coming in from London haven't been full. I think that's because a lot of people planning vacations either are not going or rearranged at a later date."

Cargo destined for the Island via British Airways is also back on schedule after completely filling the planes over the last few days, though some businesses have had to change their plans.

Julie Mayor, owner of Just Roses, usually brings her flowers in from Holland every Wednesday, but because of the cancellations has had to bring flowers in from the United States.

She said: "When I receive the flowers on Wednesday that will be two weeks since a shipment from Holland.

"We have a wholesaler from the United States that we are using.

"It's not costing more; it's just the quality is not there.

"We are managing and our customers are understanding. It's been a bit of a headache, but we cannot control mother nature."

Phil Barnett, president of the Island Restaurant Group, said restaurants have seen very little change in the food service because the flight cancellations.

He said: "There hasn't been any obvious difference. We literally had some staff who couldn't come back so it created some small difficulties.

"So much comes from North America now so the impact has been minimal."

And Kristi Grayston, chairman of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce's retail division, said, if anything, the flight cancellations had spurred business for local retailers.

She said: "I think some stores have done quite well. I was talking to a couple of retailers in Dockyard and they have been doing particularly well.

"There are big ships there but there is also because of the people stranded. Retailers are just starting to gear-up for the season."

Premier Ewart Brown and his delegation departed from Europe via Spain yesterday after being stuck in the UK in the aftermath of the Icelandic volcano and the grounding of air traffic throughout Europe, the Premier's Press Secretary Jamahl Simmons in a statement.

He confirmed the Premier is currently in Los Angeles visiting his family and will return to Bermuda Sunday night.

The statement continued: "This has been a very different week where our circumstances were beyond our control.With the help of our London office and others, we compensated in the best way we could. Our group coped very well with the situation and I am delighted that we are all safe."

The airport ticket office will have extended hours again today from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. for the last day of the extended hours then it will revert to usual time of 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.