The news that Cyprus is now just a handful of euros away from Vienna is excellent news for the island's beleaguered tourist industry.

SkyEurope Airlines, a central European budget carrier, will be flying to the Austrian capital for just 65 euros return, belatedly putting the island on the map of no-frills air travel. In the coming weeks, we can also look forward to the start of services operated by UK-based low-cost airlines Monarch and Excel.

Their services cannot come a moment too soon, both for Cypriot consumers and for the island's key tourism sector. The island had never made it onto the low-cost circuit - its five-hour flight time too long for the UK pioneers of cheap air travel; but at least with the arrival of Helios Airways, air fares to the island were brought down through healthy competition.

The demise of Helios in the wake of the 2004 tragedy returned to the established 'national carriers' their traditional dominance, with rising prices to boot, and falling numbers of visitors to the island. Indeed, this paper has received many letters from regular visitors finding it increasingly hard to find affordable fares and forced to look elsewhere for their holidays. We hope now that this trend will be reversed.

Budget airlines are an inescapable part of the European tourism scene. And neither are they the preserve of low-class yob tourism. On the contrary, they reflect the increasing desire of affluent European consumers to have cheap, easy options at their fingertips. They allow spontaneity, spur of the moment visits. And the very people likely to fly over to Paphos for a long weekend are those people with higher disposable income, making independent travel plans, and contributing far more to the local economy than the all-inclusive package customer.