HONG KONG, CHINA - THE brief life of Hong Kong's collapsed budget airline Oasis was formally ended on Wednesday after the city's High Court issued an order for it to be wound up, the company's liquidator said.

The operations of both Oasis Hong Kong Airline Limited and Oasis Growth and Investment Income Limited were ended after a brief court hearing, said Edward Middleton of financial services group KPMG, a liquidator for the company.

'The nature of our job changes from one of engaging in preserving the assets of the company to one of distributing the assets to the stakeholders,' he told reporters.

Employees, passengers left with useless tickets and others believing they had a claim would now be invited to apply for compensation, Middleton said.

Oasis launched in October 2006 offering eye-poppingly low fares, including one-way tickets from Hong Kong to London for just 1,000 Hong Kong dollars (S$176). It later added a link to the western Canadian city of Vancouver.

But the firm's founders said in April that soaring fuel costs and a decision to buy aircraft instead of renting them had led to the airline's demise.

Its collapse comes as record-high oil prices spark one of the biggest crises in the Asian airline industry in years, according to aviation analysts.

Oasis stopped air services on April 9 and presented its petition for winding up to the court. Authorities told the ill-fated airline on Friday that its flight permits had lapsed. -- AFP