By Dina Kyriakidou ATHENS, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The only suitor bidding for Greece's debt-ridden flag carrier Olympic Airways [OLY.UL] has missed a key deadline and is out of the race, dashing hopes of selling the airline any time soon, officials said on Saturday. Greek Transport Minister Christos Verelis said no extension would be given to Integrated Airline Solutions (IAS), a venture capital firm controlled by Greek shipping, oil and construction tycoon Pavlos Vardinoyannis. "The time period offered to the consortium expired yesterday. No extension will be given and as of this morning no guarantees were deposited," he told reporters. IAS, the only remaining bidder for Olympic after others pulled out of the sale or talks failed, had until last Friday to put 102 million euros ($89 million) in an escrow fund to clinch a deal for 51 percent of the ailing airline. IAS had appeared confident on Friday that it would provide the necessary guarantees on time. Government sources said it was pointless to wait any longer, having already extended the deadline for 15 days at IAS's request. The government has not said what it will do with the debt-ridden airline, whose management has said it will soon run into cash-flow problems, if the privatisation fails. "Next week the government will announce how the privatisation process will proceed," Verelis said. Ministry sources said the government was examining other scenarios of restructuring or splitting the airline into pieces and selling them separately. "The market has shown the airline cannot attract private funds in its current form," a government source said. "We must change it and try again." Two European Union-sanctioned restructuring plans for Olympic have failed in the past. The EU has banned Greece from pouring any more money into the airline. The government said when it launched the privatisation about two years ago that selling the airline was the only way to keep it flying. A depressed market and the September 11 U.S. attacks combined to make Olympic less attractive to investors and no major airlines showed interest. The small Greek Axon Airlines, which had been picked as top bidder announced a suspension of its operations in November, leaving IAS as the only suitor.