Malaysia Airlines issues apology for 24hr delay

Sunday marks one year since MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Photo / AP

Malaysia Airlines has apologised to its passengers after one of its flights was delayed for 24 hours.

This comes after passengers boarded Malaysia Airlines Flight 130, from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur, about 1pm yesterday.

The flight was due to leave Auckland at 1.15pm, but due to an engineering requirement, it was delayed, and passengers were trapped on the plane, on the tarmac, for three hours until they were eventually off-loaded.

In a statement today, a spokeswoman for Malaysia Airlines said the flight departed at 2.19pm today, and was expected to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 9.20pm (the same day).

She said the flight was delayed as the "B777-200 aircraft operating the flight developed a technical glitch prior to departure".

"In the interest of safety of our passengers, the flight was delayed for immediate rectification.

"To minimise inconvenience, Malaysia Airlines had arranged accommodation for passengers impacted by this situation," she said. "Some passengers had also opted to be transferred to other carriers."

She said Malaysia Airlines apologised for the disruption to their customers' travel plans.

"The airline reiterates that safety remains of its utmost priority."

Passengers voiced their frustrations over social media yesterday, after being stuck in the plane on Auckland Airport's tarmac for three hours.

On Twitter, passenger Owen Williams said six hours after the delay, he still had not received an update.

"What a nightmare: still no update about my flight six hours later. Ended up rebooking on another airline under insurance.

"This s*** is bananas."

Earlier Mr Williams said: "Still stuck on the Tarmac at Auckland airport after three hours. Nobody knows if we're getting off or what's happening."