A FlySafair flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg had to turn around and head back to the Mother City on Wednesday morning owing to a "minor technical issue", according to the company.

At 07:13, FlySafair announced that flight FA128 from Cape Town to Johannesburg had to return to Cape Town due to a minor technical issue on the aircraft.

"The flight left Cape Town International at 06:18," the airline said on its website.

"Shortly after take-off, the crew received an alert regarding a minor technical issue relating to the way the aircraft was balancing fuel loads and, in the interest of safety, they took the decision to return to Cape Town International so that the aircraft could be inspected."

The plane landed safely in Cape Town at 06:56.

'Safety first'

"We appreciate that this sort of delay causes customers a great deal of inconvenience. We're proud to be the most punctual airline in the world, and it pains us to inconvenience customers in this way, but we know that our customers appreciate the fact that we will always put safety first in all cases," FlySafair said.

"This disruption to operations will have a knock-on effect on some later flights, specifically FA129 from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Our teams are currently sending out SMS notifications to all those customers, using the numbers we were provided at the time of booking. Airport staff at OR Tambo International are also available to speak with customers on FA129."

At 09:04, FlySafair announced that passengers from flight FA128 had departed.

"We have deployed a backup aircraft to pick up the flights from FA129 forward so there will be no delay to these flights," the company said.

It was not clear what the "technical issue" was.

FlySafair was named Best Airline in Africa & the Indian Ocean Region in the 2019 TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards for two years running.

Hi. We apologise for the flight delay and inconvenience caused. Our teams confirm that SMS communication was forwarded to passengers. - BN

— FlySafair (@FlySafair) April 3, 2019

Today my 1st & last flight w @FlySafair . 05h50 delayed then had to turn back to CT. No communication from airline re options now! Shocking service.

— Nicola Tipping (@vinnicola) April 3, 2019

@FlySafair Fa128 CT2JHB was delayed due to tech issues then took off and now returned to CT.

— Ruvesh Ojageer (@RuveshO) April 3, 2019