Malta International Airport and Ryanair are giving different reasons why a Ryanair flight from Malta to Eindhoven returned soon after take-off.

The MIA said that a Ryanair flight to Eindhoven this morning returned to Luqa after it was realised that three passengers were missing although their luggage had been loaded.

But Ryanair said later that the flight returned because of a mistake by the luggage handler.

The Boeing 737 took off just before 8am and wasted some of its fuel while encircling the islands before it landed again.

An MIA spokesman said: "This morning three passengers bound for Eindhoven on Flight FR3475 mistakenly boarded a bus which was taking passengers to an Air Malta flight bound for Dusseldorf instead of walking to the Ryanair plane.

The Air Malta flight was boarding from Gate seven while Ryanair was boarding from Gate nine, with Gate eight purposely reserved as a holding area.

Air Malta crew identified the error when the passengers' boarding passes did not check out and the Ryanair captain was alerted and the flight turned back."

MIA will be holding discussions with the respective stakeholders to avoid a repetition of the incident.

In its statement, Ryanair said the flight from Malta to Eindhoven returned to Malta shortly after take-off following a baggage loading error by the handling agent (Aviaserve) at Malta Airport. The aircraft landed normally and the error was rectified before the flight departed to Eindhoven. Ryanair apologised to customers affected by this delay.