A BUDGET airline left passengers stranded at Bournemouth Airport on Saturday when it cancelled its final flight from the terminal.

Wizz Air announced on Friday that it was pulling out of the airport, blaming a lack of demand for its service.

The budget airline has axed its flights to Katowice, Poland as of today, but the final flight on Saturday was cancelled at short notice, due to early morning fog.

The firm has yet to comment, but an airport spokesman said: "The inbound plane from Poland couldn't get in because of bad weather. It went to Luton but it couldn't get on down to Bournemouth in time for the outbound service."

Inbound passengers were bussed down to Bournemouth, but those waiting to fly out were left with no alternative but a refund.

Fellow budget airline Ryanair also cancelled a flight to Palma on Saturday morning, also blaming the weather.

MD of Bournemouth-based Palmair, David Skillicorn, told the Echo: "I had a phone call to say that the last (Wizz) flight had been cancelled.

"The airport was rammed with people who were not going anywhere."

A spokesman for Wizz said before Saturday: "As the trends are changing the demand for city breaks is on the increase, while the trends towards working in the UK are in decline.

"We decided to stop the Bournemouth-Katowice route and move the capacity to routes that are more in demand."

Wizz, which is based in Hungary, was formed four years ago to capitalise on the mass migration of Eastern Europeans towards the UK; it now flies to more than 50 destinations.

Mr Skillicorn added: "Their growth has been spectacular, but that's starting to peter out a bit.

"A lot of the Polish population have said actually, Poland isn't too bad' and are going back.

"That's what I attribute it to. Also, these are pretty dire financial times in Europe and maybe people are cutting back on visits now."

The airport spokesman said Wizz would now operate only from London Stansted.

"Obviously we're disappointed to lose the flight, but it's a result of consolidation, not a poor performance from Bournemouth.

"We still have links to Poland with Ryanair."