Updated at 11.30am on Friday

The MV Malita resumed service on Good Friday at around 11.30am, and is now operating its trips as per schedule.

"Gozo Channel would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused," the company said.

The ramp of a Gozo Channel ferry fell into the water at Mġarr on Thursday morning, briefly stranding hundreds of people on board.

Gozo Channel chairman Joe Cordina told Times of Malta that the issue was a hydraulic failure, which would take some five hours to repair.

However, the captain took immediate action to reverse the ship from the quay and to rotate it, so that cars and passengers could disembark from the ramp at the other end of the vessel.

The incident occurred on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Mr Cordina said that the other two vessels were working a shuttle service and that the damaged ferry would not block any of the quays, allowing the other two to work.

However long queues built up at Ċcirkewwa for most of the day, with thousands who were planning to cross to the sister island having to wait hours before embarkation. 

A driver told Times of Malta in the evening that he had been in the queue for the Gozo ferry for more than two hours and others had been there much longer. The police were diverting cars to a  narrow road behind Paradise Bay Hotel. 

"It is dark and imagine what would happen if someone gets sick and an ambulance is needed," he said.

"Why is the Ministry for Gozo spending money on studies about adding a new 4th ferry and not getting one  immediately? For how long are we going to suffer?"

Watch the Mġarr terminal live here  

Watch the Cirkewwa terminal live here