EasyJet has doubled the number of its entry-level female pilots in a year and has set a target of 20 per cent of new recruits to be women by 2020.

Just 3 per cent of the world’s commercial airline pilots are women while at EasyJet, the proportion is twice that thanks to the “Amy Johnson Flying Initiative”, launched in October 2015.

The initiative is named after the first woman to fly solo from the UK to Australia and has sparked a surge in applications, Easyjet said.

The company now employs 164 female pilots, of who 62 are captains - around 14 per cent of the global total.

But there remains a long way to go. Easyjet chief executive Carolyn McCall said that while gender diversity had improved in many professions such as law, finance and politics, numbers of female pilots remain stubbornly low.

“It is hard to think of another high-profile profession where women are so under-represented,” she said.

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“We would like to understand why this is and to do what we can to redress the balance,” she added. “We have been encouraged by the success of our Amy Johnson initiative since we launched it in October 2015 and the results so far suggest that the demand from women to become pilots is there.”

Ms McCall said there were still problems with stereotyping in the industry. "I still think there are quite firm attitudes about who flies aircraft - and that's from passengers, even female passengers. There is a very deep perception here, which is that women don't fly planes."