Airline passengers travelling over the next two days are being warned to expect severe delays and cancellations as thick fog caused chaos today at airports thoughout the UK.

The difficult weather conditions meant that more than one hundred flights were cancelled and many more were delayed.

Heathrow, the UK's biggest airport, was worst hit but passengers at Gatwick, Cardiff International, Liverpool John Lennon and other airports were also affected.

British Airways warned that the delays and cancellations were likely to continue over the next two days.

That could mean that the disruption may continue into Friday - expected to be the busiest day of the Christmas period.

The chaos started this morning after dense fog forced air traffic controllers to place restrictions on how many flights could take off and land at Heathrow in west London.

The difficult conditions meant British Airways cancelled all its domestic flights to and from Heathrow airport for the rest of the day.

The flights scrapped were those between Heathrow and Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Newcastle.

BA said flights between Heathrow and mainland Europe were also severely disrupted by the fog and that passengers on flights from Gatwick airport were also facing lengthy delays.

Customers who were planning to use a domestic flight to get to Heathrow to catch an onward connection were urged to check on ba.com for the latest news or contact BA on 0800 727 800.

A BA spokesman said: "The fog is likely to remain over south-east England for the next 48 hours.

"There are likely to be severe delays and possibly cancellations to many BA short-haul and domestic services to and from Heathrow for at least the next 48 hours. BA flights to and from Gatwick are also likely to be impacted.

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