A Delhi-bound IndiGo airlines plane with around 160 passengers on board today returned to the airport here due to a techinal problem barely 20 minutes after take-off.

Flight 6E-178 took off at 9:45 AM from the Chhtrapati Shivaji International Airport here. It was on its way to Delhi from where it would have proceeded to Patna, sources said.

"The flight was scheduled to depart at 9.30 AM but left only at 9.45 AM. But after being airborne for nearly 20 minutes, the first officer announced that the flight was returning to Mumbai due to some technical issue," the sources said.

IndiGo spokesperson was not available for comments.

Leakage in the fuel system of the aircraft forced the pilot to take back the flight to the city, the sources claimed.

The Gurgaon-based budget airline's on-time performance from the four key airports- Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore- has taken a beating in the recent times compared to some of its rivals.

The airline's on-time performance from these airports stood at 82.6 per cent in June with the lowest recorded from Mumbai where only 69.2 per cent of its total flights took off on time.