A flight from London Stansted that was on its way to Malta on Tuesday had to be diverted to Marseille after the aircraft developed a "minor technical issue", Ryanair has confirmed.

In comments to Times of Malta, a spokeswoman said that after developing the issue, the aircraft "landed normally at Marseille, where it was inspected by Ryanair engineers".

"To minimise delay, customers boarded a replacement aircraft which departed to Malta shortly after," the spokeswoman said. 

Meanwhile, a passenger who was onboard the flight said that the replacement aircraft landed in Malta at 2.30am instead of at 9pm as originally scheduled. 

The passenger also lamented that despite the delay as a result of the issue, no refreshments were offered to those affected.