Speaking to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee on Tuesday (14 June) during an investigation into the causes of recent airport delays, Dekkers opened by apologising for easyJet’s recent cancellations.

"We haven’t got it right and we need to get it right," she said. "The key challenge for us is around the recruitment process and the ID checking. We have 142 crew ready and trained to go online who don’t have ID passes.

"We planned for this summer, we planned for the ramp-up, but the ID process has caught us by surprise and has taken longer than we ever planned for or anticipated."

Over the course of the pandemic, the airline made 2,000 staff redundant, 1,400 of which were based in the UK and the rest in Europe.

"Everyone is being brought back on the contracts they were on previously," Dekkers continued. "Pilots were offered part-time contracts rather than redundancy but we have now offered them all the option to come back full-time."