Problems in Air Malta operations were persisting on Wednesday with a flight to Vienna due to have taken off at 7am delayed to 11pm.

The airline offered no new explanation for the delay but earlier in the week it explained how the grounding of an aircraft due to a technical problem had led to similar delays on another flight to Vienna and flights to Zurich and to Rome since Sunday.

The airline said it had been unable to source a replacement aircraft over the busy Easter weekend. A  flight to London Gatwick was also held up for several hours on Tuesday.

The airline did not post any advisories on its Facebook page, leading an irate passenger to complain under a post about the Maltese islands.

"Airmalta, instead of posting Bull, can you give update why your Vienna flight is delayed by 16 hours?" she asked. But she did not get an official reply,