Vietnamese low-cost carrier Vietjet Air has been fined for hosting an in-flight bikini beauty pageant without obtaining permission from authorities, with You Tube videos of the event going viral.
The airline carried out the Hawaiian-themed event on a flight to celebrate its new service between Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang, with several passengers recording the contest on their smartphones and uploading them to You Tube.
Vietjet Air, which only launched in December last year, has reportedly been fined US$1,000 for allowing the in-flight pageant to take place, with a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam stating that the carrier had "violated local aviation regulations" by organising "an unapproved show on a flight".
However it’s not the first time the carrier has organised a dance event on one of its flights, with cabin crew taking part in a demonstration earlier this year (see second video link above), so it seems likely the scantily-clad nature of this latest event has proved the biggest issue for Vietnamese authorities in what remains a conservative country.
Visit vietjetair.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
