WARSAW, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - Poland's Centralwings airline will cease all budget flights at the end of September in order to switch to a charter service, a company spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.

'The company must become profitable by 2008,' spokesman Kamil Wnuk said of Centralwings, which belongs entirely to Poland's LOT national carrier.

'Unfortunately price competition on the budget flight market is difficult and therefore we have decided to stop budget flights in order to concentrate on charter flights,' the spokesman said.

'We will begin to suspend our flights as of September 14 and halt them completely by the end of the month,' he added.

Passengers who have already purchased Centralwings tickets beyond this date will be served by LOT.

Launched in 2004, Centralwings had served four million passengers as of the end of August, with flights from Poland to some 40 European cities.

But the company had never turned a profit. Losses tallied at 50 million zlotys (15 million euros, 21.5 million dollars) in the first six months of 2008, Wnuk said.