EasyJet boss supports tightening airport security after Metrojet crash

Airport security needs to be tightened around the world, easyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall told BBC News’ Kamal Ahmed.

The interview was her first since Metrojet Flight 9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh crashed over a week ago, leaving 224 people dead.

It’s believed a bomb brought down the aircraft and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said if that were the case, airport security will have to be reviewed in areas where Islamic State militants are active.

That could cause higher costs and more delays for passengers.

McCall said that in some airports, security is already very tight and very strict and British airports already do very well.

"[But] I think Philip Hammond is right to point out that there are other countries that airlines fly to where it perhaps needs to be tightened,” she told Ahmed.

“I think the government has come out quite clearly and said that Sharm will have to tighten airport security.

"I think everybody would agree with that. It's not a blanket message, it's a very specific message about certain airports around the world.”

She said passengers would support security being stepped up where it needs to be as no-one wants a security threat, and the idea of bombs on board was a thing that "kept airline chief executives awake at night".

McCall also indicated to the BBC that by the weekend all their delayed passengers will have been brought home.

easyJet has been working to try and evacuate stranded passengers in Sharm el-Sheikh after the government halted all flights to the resort city from the UK.

But the airline has been struggling as the number of flights they can operate is at the whim of Egyptian authorities.

On Friday, the airline only managed to get two of its eight flights it initially planned out of the city.

"We know it's frustrating, we apologise for it, even though this is not caused by easyJet,” she told the BBC's business editor.

"The reason we said we had eight flights going out is because we had permission to get eight flights out.

"And the reason that didn't happen is because that permission was rescinded, so the flights we thought we were getting out, could not go out - but that was just about everything being very fluid."