Hong Kong - Hong Kong's first long-haul budget airline, Oasis, was Wednesday rumoured to be about to shut down operations just 18 months after its launch.

The award-winning airline, which offers fares of as little as 1,000 Hong Kong dollars (128 US dollars) between London and Hong Kong, was said to be preparing to release a statement about its future.

A spokeswoman for Oasis told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Wednesday morning she was unable to confirm or deny the rumours and said she expected to have more information from the airline later in the day.

Phone lines to the airline were meanwhile jammed as anxious ticket holders phoned in an attempt to find out whether their bookings were still valid.

Oasis caused a sensation in Hong Kong's aviation industry when it began operating two Boeing 747 planes in October
2006, flying between Hong Kong and London.

Within a year, it had five Boeing 747 planes in operation and boasted that in its first year it flew 250,000 passengers between London and Hong Kong. It began flights to Vancouver last June.

It was voted the world's leading new airline in December at the World Travel Awards, which have been called the travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars.

However, the budget airline is believed to have been badly hit like other airlines by the recent hike in oil prices, which has forced ticket prices up.

Unconfirmed reports in the Hong Kong Economic Journal said the airline had run up losses of 100,000 US dollars-plus and would cease operations from Wednesday.

Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung told government-run radio station RTHK Wednesday morning he was trying to find out if the rumours that Oasis would shut down were correct.

"We have been receiving rumours of financial difficulties within Oasis but everything is operating as normal at the moment," he said. "We will watch what is happening." (dpa)