The airline easyJet has launched a romantic poetry competition, challenging passengers to pen romantic lines on the back of an airline sick bag, in the run-up to Valentine’s day.

The competition was dreamed up after cabin crew on a Paris-London flight cabin are said to have found a note written in French and English, sending love and sympathising with anyone who needed to use the bag for its intended purpose.

Entrants need to pen their poem on a sick bag - available from their seatback pocket on an easyJet flight - and then share their creation publicly on Twitter or Instagram with @easyJet using the tag #LoveSickSonnets. Organisers say that entrants have the opportunity of winning a pair of flights to anywhere on the easyJet network. The competition closes at midnight on 28 February.

Brian Bilston, the “poet laureate of Twitter” and author of poetry collection You Took the Last Bus Home, has written a poem, pictured, to launch of the competition. The competition runs until the end of the month. Entries will be judged by Daisy Goodwin, editor of a number of poetry anthologies and also writer of the ITV drama Victoria.

Tina Milton, head of cabin crew at easyJet, said: “Distance is said to make the heart grow fonder, but long-distance relationships are always hit with some light turbulence. We are challenging our customers to channel their inner Byron, Keats and Wordsworth.”