easyJet was named a Finalist in the DEI Airline of the Year category at the 2025 Travelling for Business Awards, recognition for the airline that has made opening aviation's doors part of its public identity.
easyJet's inclusion story is told most powerfully through its people campaigns. The airline has been one of aviation's loudest voices on gender balance in the cockpit, running high-profile recruitment initiatives to lift the proportion of female pilots in an industry where they remain a small minority - challenging the stereotype at its source by taking the message into schools. Its celebrated cabin crew recruitment drives have targeted over-45s and career-changers, championing age diversity with campaigns that turned empty-nesters and second-careerists into some of the airline's most visible ambassadors. The orange uniform, the message runs, fits every stage of life.
The approach reflects the airline's founding DNA. easyJet democratised European flying itself - making travel affordable to millions for whom it had been a luxury - and its workforce philosophy extends the same instinct inward: talent is everywhere, and barriers are there to be removed. Accessibility investment for passengers, visible LGBTQ+ allyship, and a culture that promotes from within round out a proposition voters recognised as genuine rather than performative. It helps that the operation keeps growing in step -
new winter routes across Europe and North Africa, a
new base opening at Newcastle, and even a place in
Airbus's
hydrogen hub network - because inclusion at easyJet scales with the airline itself.
The 2025 title went to Virgin Atlantic, with easyJet shortlisted alongside Delta - low-cost pioneer, flag-carrier disruptor and American giant united by the same conviction.
The flightdeck pipeline shows the intent at its most concrete: easyJet's long-running Amy Johnson initiative - named for Britain's aviation pioneer - has made the airline synonymous with the campaign for female pilots, pairing ambitious recruitment targets with school outreach that plants the idea years before a licence is possible. Change the picture children see, the airline reasons, and the cockpit changes a generation later.
As the Travelling for Business Awards look towards 2026, easyJet's shortlisting honours a distinctive contribution: proving that Europe's biggest orange airline can be its most open too - and that the surest way to diversify aviation is to keep inviting everyone in.
