Air Malta said on Tuesday that significant flight delays on some of its services since Sunday were due to a technical issue in one of its aircraft that led to it having to be withdrawn from service.

The company said in a statement that there were significant delays in its Zurich service on Easter Sunday, on its Rome and Brussels services on Monday and on the London Gatwick service on Tuesday.

However Times of Malta understands that the airline had a delay in the delivery of new aircraft and so had to lease another plane to fulfil the summer schedule. One of these had to go into maintenance. 

It is the latest issue that the airline has had to deal with. Aviation sources say that there have been several incidents when new aircraft has been hit with ground equipment. 

This has happened at least 12 times since the new ground operator took over, sources say. 

The airline said that its 2023 summer schedule has been designed to operate with eight fully crewed aircraft.

It currently has one of its own aircraft undergoing maintenance until mid-May.

The airline had planned to take delivery of two A320neo aircraft in early 2023. But during this transition period of aircraft moving in and out of its fleet, it became necessary for the airline to wet-lease two alternative aircraft to cover the scheduled flying.

One of these wet-leased aircraft experienced a technical issue on Sunday morning and it had to be withdrawn from service.

Due to it being the peak Easter weekend, it was not possible to source a replacement aircraft from elsewhere at such short timescales, Air Malta said.