International flights from Shoreham Airport will not operate again this year - and may now be scrapped for good.

The Argus revealed last month that the service from the airport to Le Touquet in France had been suspended because of a lack of engineers.

Now, following discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority, operator Sky-Trek has confirmed there will be no more flights until the end of the year.

The company had hoped to restart the service for late summer, but said last night it could not guarantee it would ever start again.

Several other small airlines have tried to operate services to the Continent and Channel Islands from the airport and failed.

Sky-Trek, which started what it was hoped would be a regular daily service on June 2, made 16 flights out of Shoreham taking a total of 180 passengers to the French resort.

Passengers were flown to Lydd airport, close to the Sussex-Kent border, before touching down, picking up more passengers and making the short hop across the Channel to Le Touquet.

The company says it will not operate the service from Lydd to Le Touquet until it gets the required maintenance cover.

Robin Gordon, Sky-Trek's marketing director, said: "There is a worldwide lack of skilled aircraft engineers. We are a small company and we have difficulty in recruiting and keeping them as they go off and join the major airlines. It is because of this and in consultation with the CAA we have voluntarily suspended operations."

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: "Sky-Trek wrote to us on July 31 asking us to revoke their air operator's certificate, which we have done"

The news is a blow to Shoreham Airport, which had hoped the service would be the start of more scheduled flights from Sussex to European towns and cities. Airport manager John Haffenden said: "Sky-Trek has done the sensible thing. If they cannot get the staff to maintain the aircraft to the 100 per cent standards required then they are not going to fly them."