Sir Martin said he had seen a BA board member selected for “additional screening” for a flight from the UK to the US.

“Well-known celebrities such as Henry Kissinger also get picked out, as do a number of infants,” he added.

He said flight crew should be treated as the “the ultimate trusted traveller”, saying: “Let’s face it, they don’t need a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to do their damage if that’s what they were intent on.”

He criticised the US for imposing tighter security controls on foreign visitors than themselves, saying: “They seem to have forgotten that the 9/11 assault was entirely internal with no foreigners entering the country.”

He also criticised UK authorities for not backing new screening machines that would allow laptops to stay in bags and other rules that created a “scandalous waste of time and effort.”