Forecasters in London expect the weather to finally improve today for Christmas air traffic at the UK’s Heathrow Airport.

A stubborn and dense fog has enveloped Europe’s busiest airport for more than 48 hours.

It’s been called the worst Christmas weather to hit Britain since 1997.

Holiday travellers headed to the United Kingdom from Bermuda have been largely spared of the mess.

British Airways direct service between Gatwick and Bermuda International Airport went fairly smoothly Thursday, although there were slight delays of about an hour on both ends of the trip.

Meantime today’s scheduled BA flight to Gatwick is expected to be unaffected.

More than 70,000 other British Airways passengers haven’t been quite as lucky.

The carrier cancelled all domestic flights Thursday and was able to operate at 40 percent of its normal levels on Friday for short domestic travel.

“The weather across much of the UK is regrettably showing little sign of improvement for Friday and therefore we have no option but to make some more cancellations,” said Geoff Want, British Airways’ director of ground operations.

“Faced with the likelihood of continuing fog we are urging our customers due to travel over the weekend on domestic services to and from London Heathrow to begin thinking about alternative ways of travelling wherever possible in case the current weather persists.”

The carrier also employed some alternative measures of its own. To reach nearly half its normal volume BA used large Boeing 747s and Boeing 777s on short haul trips which allowed them to get more passengers on fewer flights.

The airline also employed coach services to transport people over shorter distances like Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam.

Despite those innovative efforts the British carrier has booked at least 5,000 hotel rooms for immovable passengers, according to Reuters News Service.

Some estimates put the financial loses at about $19.7m ($10 million) for British Airways.

Those losses come in the same calendar year as the foiled terror plot to blow which caused Heathrow to shut down temporarily.

BA reported that event cost $196.5m ($100 million) to the bottom line.