South Africa's cash-strapped budget airline 1time grounded its fleet without warning on Friday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded, media reported.

"This afternoon at about 2:30 pm (1230 GMT), the 1time board together with the business rescue practitioners, decided to suspend services with effect this afternoon," its CEO Blacky Komani told Eye Witness News.

He said the airline was talking with other carriers to help fly stranded passengers across the country.

The airline has in recent weeks indicated it was going through financial turbulence.

Company officials were not reachable and the airline's phones and website suddenly went down on Friday.

1time is the latest casualty in the South African airline industry. In March, another low cost airline, Velvet Sky, shut down after experiencing financial problems.

1time's grounding leaves South Africa with two low-cost airlines, one tied to flag carrier South African Airways and the other to BA.

South African Airways has plunged into a deep crisis of its own after its chairwoman and seven board members resigned in September in an apparent spat with the government.

The government has announced that it would help the carrier with $600 million of financing over two years, after it ran up operating losses of 1.3 billion rands (116 million euros,$150 million) for the financial year 2011-2012, hurt by the global economic slowdown and soaring fuel prices.