Vietnamese carrier apologies after ‘bikini incident’ on aircraft

Vietnam’s biggest budget airline VietJet was forced to apologise after parading bikini-clad models through a flight carrying the national football team.

Photographs from the flight circulated widely on social media showed the women posing with or touching the footballers.

Vietnam’s culture, sports and tourism ministry vowed to investigate the incident, which took place on a flight from Changzhou, China to Hanoi on Saturday, according to the Financial Times.

Vietnamese state-controlled media reported that aviation authorities fined VietJet 40m dong, or less than $2,000 on flight safety grounds.

The bikini incident followed Vietnam’s national team being placed second after Uzbekistan in the Asian Football Confederation Championship on Saturday.

Vietjet co-founder and chairman, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, is Vietnam’s only female billionaire.

She described the bikini display as a “spontaneous act”, adding that “the urgency of the flight, the harsh weather and the complicated procedures in China were among the reasons that led to the airline’s mistakes”.

However, some Vietnamese angered by the incident called for a boycott of the airline, the FT reported.

VietJet has earned the nickname “the bikini airline” for sometimes dressing its flight crew in swimsuits since being founded in 2011.

It publishes an annual calendar featuring skimpily attired female models, which has come under criticism in Vietnam.

The airline has grabbed about a 40% share of Vietnam’s domestic air travel market, providing competition to national carrier Vietnam Airlines.

The company went public last year with what was at the time Vietnam’s biggest initial public offering.