A family from Gloucester received a warm welcome last week upon their arrival at Malta International Airport. Seven passengers from the Wardhaugh family were greeted by a small welcoming party organised by Air Malta in collaboration with the Westin Dragonara.

The Wardhaugh family had been holidaying together in Malta since 2001, having travelled to the islands on 10 separate occasions since then. Before his holiday in Malta this month, Derek Wardhaugh was surfing Air Malta’s Facebook page and happened to comment that he was looking forward to his holiday, and that his family had been coming to Malta for years.

Air Malta’s PR team picked up on this comment and contacted Derek for further information. It transpired that the Wardhaugh family had been loyal Air Malta customers – as well as loyal Westin customers – for years. It was then decided that the Wardhaugh family would receive VIP treatment in the form of a surprise.

Speaking to this newspaper earlier this week, Mr Wardhaugh told how he had been travelling to Malta since the 1960s, when his father worked for the Royal Air Force. He described Malta in the 1960s as "raw" and said that he had very fond memories of his visits here as a boy. He also commented on the immense difference between Malta’s hotels in the 1980s and the hotels today, having enjoyed his honeymoon in Malta during the 1980s.

He remarked that the design and aesthetic elements of the hotels had improved tremendously, influencing the type of tourist attracted to the island, and that the concrete hotel blocks one would see then are now a thing of the past.

Asked if he had any idea about last week’s surprise, Mr Wardhaugh did say that Air Malta’s PR specialist Alison Casha had hinted that there would be a small surprise and that it would probably happen on the plane. This did not come to pass, but on reaching arrivals, Mr Wardhaugh said: “We saw a sign saying ‘Wardhaugh’, and thought it was the Westin minivan we had organised.

“I approached the gentlemen and thought he was looking very smart for a taxi driver. There was a lady on either side of him with flowers and waving, then we saw a photographer and we thought: ‘What’s going on here?’.”

Mr Wardhaugh said that he and his family had not visited the island for four years, due to issues with his business, so the welcome party was “just so special and unexpected”.

He went on to say: “I’m not often lost for words but it was very moving. They were so lovely and gracious. I was presented with a lovely book on Malta, as was my father. There were also gifts for the children and my wife, as well as bouquets of flowers. We were made to feel like VIPS and, as I have said, we are just an ordinary family, so it was absolutely wonderful. The moment is etched in our memories".

The surprise did not end there. The Wardhaugh family were greeted with cakes and bottles of wine at the Westin Dragonara, who knew that the family was celebrating two birthdays and an anniversary.

Mr Wardhaugh and his family have been using Air Malta for about 30 years. When asked about the Air Malta fleet and how it has changed over the years, the first thing that came to mind was that the airline used to offer a glass of wine with the in-flight meal, “You could have two or three glasses of wine and that was all included”. After making this humorous remark, Mr Wardhaugh went on to say that the uniforms were less formal than in the past and that “the welcoming nature of Air Malta has not changed over the years”.

When asked whether any stories came to mind from the many years he and his family has flown Air Malta, Mr Wardhaugh came up with a comical story of when the family boarded a flight heading for Düsseldorf instead of the intended London Heathrow flight. In relaying the story, Mr Wardhaugh said that the error had only been discovered when he found a couple sitting in the seats allocated to him and his wife. On telling the couple that they were in the wrong seats, the couple informed them that the seat numbers corresponded with their boarding passes and suggested that they check the destination on their boarding pass with the destination of the plane. On realising that they were on the wrong plain, the Air Malta crew promptly radioed the London Heathrow flight and got the Wardhaugh family on their intended flight. As they were being escorted off the Düsseldorf flight, Mr Wardhaugh fondly remembers the man he thought was in his seat calmly saying to him: “but Düsseldorf is lovely!”

Mr Wardhaugh went on to say that they should have been more careful and checked the boarding cards but Air Malta had reacted very quickly, made phone calls from air craft to air craft and the mistake was rectified very smoothly.

On being asked about why the family continues to visit Malta, the sunshine and the sea topped the list. It was pointed out, however, that “the hospitality and the welcome that we get from the people in Malta are key factors, and that has not changed over the years.” Malta’s culture and history were also highlighted as one of the factors that continue to bring the Wardhaugh family back to the island. Mr Wardhaugh went on to give a special mention to the Westin Dragonara, saying that “they're like old friends – their management team is fantastic and we’ve known the concierge team for years”.

Mr Wardhaugh concluded by saying that the celebration of his wife’s birthday, his birthday and his parents’ 62nd wedding anniversary, the surprise welcome by Air Malta, the Westin Dragonara and Flower Arts (who provided the bouquets of flowers) had altogether made the holiday one that he and his family will never forget.