AN airport has advised passengers not to visit its website - because it is inadequate and out-of-date.

The Teesside Airport site has not been updated for some time and carries no flight information.

A frustrated customer, who contacted The Northern Echo, tried to find out flight details, but was shocked at the lack of information.

He described the website as "disgraceful".

Airport chiefs have admitted the website is "dreadful" and are trying to have it withdrawn.

A new site will replace it, but it is still under construction and will take months to complete.

John Waiting, spokesman for Teesside Airport, said yesterday: "All we have got on the site at the present time is basic information and a holding message.

"The other one was provided to us free of charge by a website provider, based in Washington.

"We've told them that we want it withdrawn and are trying to get them to do that, because it is out-of-date."

He said it had been created a number of years ago and that the new site would be prepared and designed through airport staff.

Mr Waiting said: "We aim to give basic information about the airport, the services available, and we think we will include flight arrival and departure times.

"It'll be fairly simple information - we're not going into great detail, because some of the airport sites are like reading War and Peace."

The site can be found at www.teessideairport.com, but Mr Waiting said completing it was not a high priority.

He said: "We're talking several months yet. We're trying to get more holiday flights and more business schedule flights, so that has got to be the priority.

"We've got quite a lot of things ongoing and, as we are a relatively small organisation, it's a question of prioritising these things."

The old site, at www.airportteesside.com, is still online, but Mr Waiting advised people not to view it.

He said: "I apologise to anyone looking at the old site, because it is dreadful, but we're having great difficulties in having the provider withdrawing it, and we don't have the mechanism to wipe it out.