Airline star Jane Boulton looks unrecognisable in TV return after 25 years

Airline star Jane Boulton, who has become TikTok's newest icon, has made her return to TV almost 25 years after being thrust into the spotlight.

Boulton shot to fame back in 1999 for her stint on reality television series Airline. The beloved ITV fly-on-the-wall series followed the daily life of client crew, ground workers and frequently frustrated passengers of both Britannia Airways and easyJet. Airline ran for almost a decade, from 1998 to 2007 and Jane starred in series 2-5 based at London Luton Airport.

ITV

She hasn’t been seen since appearing on the show, however thanks to TikTok, she has now gained a large following. According to her, many of her new fans 'weren’t even born' when Airline was on the air.

Videos of the series, which often include clips of Jane dealing with customers and their outrageous problems, have gone viral. Thanks to the power of social media, she has a whole new generation of fans who are liking, commenting and sharing her hilarious one liners and no nonsense attitude.

There’s a lot of curiosity surrounding Jane and her what she’s up to now, which is why she appeared on the This Morning sofa on Friday (21 July) to spill all the details about her time on the show and her new job.

Hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond were delighted to speak with Jen about Gen Z's newest icon, which has left Jane feeling quite dumbfounded.

"The most bizarre thing is they say, ‘My mum used to watch you, we think you are an icon,’" she shared, before adding: "Half of them weren’t even born when it was on!”

"It’s been a shock, a nice shock," she added, as she chatted away.

Jane first became aware of her TikTok fame when her three daughters - one aged 15 and her twin 13-year-olds - revealed she was a hot topic on the video sharing app.

“One of them mentioned, ‘Ooh mum there’s something about you on TikTok,’ and I thought, ‘No, don’t be ridiculous’. Of course, I never even had TikTok, I’m not very good on social media, I’m 53 on Sunday, I’ve got no idea.”

ITV

Jane has older nieces who also told her about all her new fans and urged her to set up her own account. Jane now has over 47,000 followers on the platform.

She now runs her own cake business and is starting to use TikTok to promote it. Jane offers themed treats to personalised birthday cakes.

We can only imagine what an Airline-themed cake from Jane would look like!