Customers of a flight training school have been left grounded and out of pocket after the business closed suddenly. 

Eden Flight Training, operating from Teesside International Airport, closed about two weeks ago with customers taking to social media since, saying they are owed money and have been unable to contact the firm. 

One angry customer said: "They have closed the office and I was told it has gone into administration, but it's not with Companies House yet. 

"I couldn't ring them because the mailbox was full and cannot leave a message.  They shouldn't have been taking money knowing this was going to happen."

She added: "I have been on one flight which I enjoyed. I was asked if I would like to open an account and paid in £1,000 three weeks ago.

"They cancelled the next flight and the next thing I knew the training school had closed."

Pilot Mark Lee, who owns the firm, said: "I am trying to make sure that people don't lose out, so we do apologise for the situation. It wasn't what we intended. 

"We ran the company successfully for 12 years and have taught hundreds of pilots to fly since and did some great things with Middlesbrough College and Leeds University over the years. 

"But in the last couple of years, everything has just increased dramatically, like parts for aircraft fuel and airport landing fees. Everything has kept going up so much, so unfortunately we have had to close doors. 

He added: "We have been issuing quite a lot of refunds in the last two weeks to people owed money and we continue to work with customers to make sure they get the money back or get the flights done they have paid for."

He added: "We have seen many flying schools come and go over the years. For me it was always a paid hobby rather than a business.(Image: Google)

"I have always tried to make it affordable to everyone - to be able to learn to fly when they would not otherwise have been able to afford to.

"We have always run it lean with very little profit for us hence when the market changed with everything going up it didn't take long for it to go wrong for us." 

Mr Lee said the "final straw" came when a local maintenance company shut down which meant the training school had to go further south for it's maintenance, which hadn't been cost-effective."