Aer Lingus is aiming to recruit 100 pilots as part of its expansion plans.

The airline, which flies to over 80 destinations, said that it intends to use the recruitment drive to increase the number of female pilots it employs, which currently stands at 10 per cent.

"Aer Lingus has a strong track record of supporting female pilots, employing twice as many compared with the international airline industry average," the company said in a statement.

Aer Lingus is not targeting a specific number of female recruits as part of the current hiring programme, said a spokesperson for the airline. A challenge for the airline is not the quality of female applicants but that relatively few women apply to become pilots at the airline, added the spokesperson.

Aer Lingus' parent company IAG has published an objective that at least 33 per cent of its board should be women by the end of 2020.

The new pilots will be part of the airline's expansion strategy under which it intends to grow its North Atlantic fleet from 17 aircraft to 30 by 2023 and to introduce new routes.

Aer Lingus also plans to add the new Airbus A321neo long-range aircraft to its fleet in summer 2019. The aircraft will be the world's longest range single aisle aircraft when it is introduced.

Candidates for the pilot recruitment programme who pass an initial online application process will be invited to complete psychometric tests, followed by an assessment and medical checks.