sale will lead to more incentive schemes for travellers here.

Such was the popularity of the promotion -- which featured a $330 (199 pounds) fare from London to Bermuda -- that BA workers on the Island believe it can only enhance the prospects of more offers.

And it may be that in the future deals will provide Bermudian-based passengers with a slice of the action.

The weekend sale took BA Bermuda staff completely by surprise, but after opening their Hamilton office on Sunday to aid those booking seats, they have ensured bosses in the UK are fully aware of how the scheme caught the public's attention.

And the hotel industry is also set to experience a tourism surge as hundreds of extra visitors flood the Island between now and November.

BA representative Sallie Singleton said: "It was very exciting, everybody knew somebody who was booking. I think we are going to to see a really good increase in visitors this Autumn.

"The people in London are definitely aware of the success. We are hoping it will lead to more promotions in Bermuda.'' She said management in Bermuda had been lobbying hard to get lower fares and had succeeded in getting a reduced ticket in the off-season. She said the sale was a real one-off and doubted whether the fare had ever been that low to Bermuda.

A section of the story on British Airways' seat sale was omitted from yesterday's newspaper. The following is the omitted text: It is too early to tell how many tickets have been sold to Bermuda, but the Island was in the top four of 80 destinations worldwide, with a total of two million tickets available.

The sale finished at midnight last night, ending 48 hours of phone madness in Britain as special lines were deluged with 75,000 calls. In addition 1,200 Internet customers booked tickets.

BA shops opened for business and in some places as many as 200 people queued for tickets. One shop stayed open until 10 p.m. to process sales.

And although hundreds of extra staff were taken on to handle the demand, many were left disappointed that they failed to get through -- and when they did, they discovered the seats were already gone.

Catherine Lyst and her boyfriend Benjamin Crisp, from Aberdeen, Scotland, were two of the many that missed out on the special deal.

"We've been wanting to come out to Bermuda for years as we've got friends out there,'' Ms Lyst told The Royal Gazette .

"We could never afford it before - the flights are so expensive - but when we heard about BA's special offer I was on the phone straight away.

"I tried all day on Saturday and Sunday but the line was permanently engaged -- I just couldn't get through. I'm not surprised to hear that all the Bermuda seats have sold out. I'm so disappointed.''