The former UK home secretary will become a non-executive director of the airline company with effect from 1 July.

Italian Roberta Neri brings ‘considerable aviation experience’ to the Ryanair board, said chair Stan McCarthy.

Bertrand Grabowski, also a NED at Jazeera Airways, will join the airline group’s board with effect from 1 October.

Austrian ex-politician Elisabeth Köstinger and Eamonn Brennan, former IAA chief, have both agreed to join the board.

Anne Nolan, former chair of the Irish Aviation Authority, is joining the airline’s board as a non-executive director.