We'd like to go from Boston through London Heathrow to Malta. Academic Tours routes us on British Air or Virgin Atlantic to London, then switches to Air Malta whose earliest flight is 11:25 a.m., leaving us a 6 hour or so layover. Is there any better way? Proposed dates are leaving 2/21 and returning 3/5 but we're flexible.
thanks in advance.

Did you check into flying to Sicily and then connecting to Malta? There are several express flights from Catania each day which only take about 20 minutes or so.

No, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion.

I also flew to Malta from Catania, but that was after spending a week in Sicily. Bear in mind that flying through Sicily will involve a double connection, transiting first in Milan or Rome. It may make sense to spend a day or so in Sicily on each end.

Ryanair has started Malta flights, from London Stansted, Dublin, and Pisa. You'd have to put up with transferring to Stansted. I'd do it if interested in a London layover of one or more nights on each end of the trip.

Thanks for the suggestions.
If I had my druthers, I'd break up the trip with a night in London,but I don't get enough vacation time to justify doing that. I may have to just bite the bullet and kill 6 hours in LHR -- of course,that's assuming the flight from Boston arrives on time.