Seoul, Aug 11 (IANS): T'way Air's flight bound for Incheon from Singapore has been delayed due to a safety inspection issue involving its aircraft, the South Korean budget airline said on Sunday.

T'way's flight TW172 took off from Singapore's Changi Airport for South Korea's Incheon International Airport at 2:15 a.m. (local time) with 285 passengers aboard, but returned to the point of departure 55 minutes later due to the aircraft's safety issues, according to company officials, Yonhap news agency reported.

Following a check, T'way determined the aircraft, an Airbus A330-300, was unfit for immediate aviation and sent a different aircraft from South Korea to Changi Airport as a replacement.

The replacement flight is set to take off from Changi Airport at around 11 p.m., resulting in a delay of about 21 hours.

T'way said it offered TW172 passengers a stay at a hotel near Changi Airport and plans to give out additional compensation for the incident.

"We are sorry to cause a big inconvenience due to an unexpected safety check," according to the official of the airline.

In June, the low-cost carrier was ordered to come up with measures to address repeated safety and flight delay issues by South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, after a series of international flight delays.