Updated 5.55pm

Passengers booked on a Ryanair flight to Treviso woke up in the dead of night early on Wednesday to make sure they made it on time for their 6.50am departure.

Ten hours later, they were still at Malta International Airport, waiting for their flight to leave. The flight eventually left at 5.37pm.

“It’s dreadful,” a passenger told Times of Malta. “They could have sent us home and told us to come back in the afternoon. Instead they told us nothing.”

Flight plans seemed to have been derailed shortly before take-off, the passenger wrote on Facebook.

Passengers were herded out of the MIA departures terminal in preparation for boarding.

“We could see the plane. Little puffs of black smoke kept coming out of it,” he recalled. 

A short while later, an airline representative told passengers to return inside – where they remained all day.

Times of Malta sought comment from Ryanair. 

Spokesman Rachel McFaul said: “This flight from Malta to Venice Treviso was regrettably delayed ahead of take-off due to a minor technical issue with the aircraft.

"Affected customers were informed by email and SMS text message and provided with three sets of refreshment vouchers, before departing to Venice Treviso later that day. Ryanair sincerely apologised to customers for the delay.”

While many were sympathetic to the passenger's complaints about a lack of communication, others too exception to his post. 

"Be thankful because in Malta we have incredible and very professional engineers and I'm sure they're doing their best to fix it as soon as possible," one wrote.

"That time on the ground and delays is costing a fortune to the airline. Nobody wants delays." 

Under EU rules, passengers aboard the flight to Treviso will be able to claim €250 in compensation for the lengthy delay.