Traditionally holding the number one spot for holidays, a Spanish island has surprised many by opening a new route to holiday competitor island Malta - which is riding the crest of a tourism wave after some years in the doldrums.

Vueling, a Spanish low cost airline, will start flying to Malta from March 31 three times a week, to and from the Spanish capital Madrid.

The airline was set up just four years ago and already has 24 aircraft in her fleet, and before the announcement of the new Malta service already served some 57 destinations, and passenger traffic grew an impressive 75 per cent year on year to November 2007, when it carried nearly half a million passeners in that month alone.

Current destinations include internal Spanish flights to Alicante, serving the Costa Blanca region, and Malaga for the Costa del Sol - both ideal to escape from the city for a golfing or sailing break, or just to spend some time on the beach. With low prices a weekend break is affordable and easy.

Less surprising in the routes the airline flies to are Nice in the South of France, Milan in Italy, which allows easy access to the Swiss Alps - and Venice, ideal for a romantic couple of days away.

Choosing Malta as a destination for Spanish tourists is a clear example of how Malta is successfully diversifying from her main holiday trade from the UK, which has formed the vast majority of her tourists in recent decades. Allowing low cost airlines to fly to the island's Luqa Airport has boosted the Malta holidays and hotel trade tremendously in the last two years.

New official figures show that this year's all important summer season has been the best in six years for Malta, reversing the decline in fortunes for the Mediterranean island.

The good news for Malta is that despite the increase in the number of tourists arriving on the island via low cost flights, the occupancy levels of hotels has increased from basic to 5 star, showing that Malta can appeal to all.

Further good news for Malta came from the figures for hotels and holidays with the news that while the number of arrivals from her traditional UK market rose by eleven per cent, the number of people from Germany visiting Malta increased by a third this year, adding strength to the holidays industry that has been reliant on tourism from one country in the past, and even Spanish tourists now visiting the island.

Both Germany and the UK have seen new low cost flight operators sucessfully applying to fly to Malta, and the increase in tourism can largely be put down to them, but with Spanish and Scandanavian airlines taking an interest Malta could see a real cosmopolitan mix arrive for a holiday this year.