Flight operations are expected to return to normal on Wednesday, after several planes were grounded due to maintenance irregularities.

The move came after the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) found errors at a maintenance unit. SACAA said it had been in talks with the airlines prior to the grounding of flights.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the South African Airways Technical team had drawn up a corrective plan to deal with irregularities that resulted in delays and cancellations on Tuesday.

Mbalula appealed for calm at a news conference, stating that there is no crisis

The SACAA said it had inspected a number of aircraft at SAA Technical and had issued a prohibition order until the faults it had found had been fixed.

SAA Technical does maintenance for SAA, its subsidiary Mango Airlines and British Airways franchise partner Comair, which also operates under the kulula.com brand.