According to information obtained by RTL, the first Luxair Tours flight departing at 7am on Wednesday morning had to be aborted after issues with the air conditioning system were discovered.
Passengers and crew switched to another plane, with which they also encountered technical difficulties mid-air above the Alsace region - pilots were alerted by a hydraulic problem, and made the decision to return to Findel airport safely.
Luxair commented that today's incident was a "small, minor problem", with which the crew could have continued their planned flight path, but decided to return to Findel for safety purposes.
As the Boeing 737 had to burn fuel before landing, the air plane circled around Findel airport for 1 to 2 hours at low altitude before being able to touch down.
A third attempt with a third Boeing aircraft was successful, which took off shortly before 2pm on Wednesday. The scheduled arrival at Las Palmas is for 5.30pm.
The 130 passengers booked from Gran Canaria to Findel on the return flight will arrive at 11.30pm on Wednesday. The total delay is roughly 7 hours.
