Ryanair has scored the ultimate public relations coup as British Prime Minister David Cameron was spotted whisking his wife Samantha off to Spain to celebrate her 40th birthday.

It is the couple’s first foreign holiday since he became Prime Minister last May. The couple cancelled plans for a luxury family holiday in Thailand at Christmas amid fears it would appear excessive at a time when thousands were losing their jobs.

A fellow passenger took a photograph of the couple in the departure lounge ahead of the flight from Stansted airport to Malaga, Spain.

As the school holidays have not yet started, they left their three children in Britain.

After the two-hour flight they were driven to Granada, where they visited the Alhambra, a magnificent palace and fortress built by the region’s Moorish leaders in the 14th century.

In a bid to appear in touch in this age of austerity the couple also stayed in a mid-market three-star hotel in Granada, where a double room costs €120 euros a night.