The government and Ryanair have reached agreement for the low-cost airline to base one aircraft in Malta from May.

Ryainair will also operate six new routes between Malta and European destinations. The services will push the number of Malta routes on the Ryainair network to 19.

The new routes are to Valencia, Bologna, Seville, Billund in Denmark, Krakow in Poland and Marseilles. Sales start at midnight today and the airline will also release one million seats at €9.99 for travel in late March and April excluding Easter week.

It is hoped the move will attract more visitors to Malta since the trend among modern-day travellers is to go away more often but stay for fewer nights.

Ryanair currently has around 20 per cent of the air travel market in Malta.

The Irish airline saw a 13 per cent increase in passengers to Malta in 2009, helping its market share improve to 15 per cent - second only to Air Malta.

Ryanair's Commercial manager, Colin Casey, said that thanks to the new routes, his airline expected to carry 800,000 tourists to Malta next year and invest over $70m at the airport.

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