Airline Industry Sexes It Up To Boost Sales and Male Passenger Morale

by Coleen Singer at Sssh.com

In an oddly-amusing throwback to the days before politically-correct standards and common sense came into play (in Western countries, at least), has anybody noticed what’s going on at the airlines and passenger train lines in Thailand, China and other Asia-Pacific realms lately? In short, cashing in on the “everyman’s fantasy” of sexy stewardesses serving them drinks in short skirts, and knowing EXACTLY how to do the “Bunny Dip“? [History lesson: “Bunny Dip,” was invented by Kelly Collins. Kelly Collins, once renowned for being the “Perfect Playboy Bunny”; to do the “Bunny Dip” the Bunny gracefully leaned backwards while bending at the knees with the left knee lifted and tucked behind the right leg. This maneuver allowed the “Bunny” to serve drinks while keeping her low-cut costume in place.]

Read on…

This airline marketing development seemed to get off the ground (as it were) after 30 years in remission a couple of years ago, when Thai domestic low-cost carrier Nok Air released this fast paced and sexy TV commercial:

Halfway around the world from Thailand, the Emerald Isle then too entered the “Sexy Stewardess Fantasy Fetish Club” when Irish carrier RyanAir released its 2012 “The Girls Of Ryan Air Charity Calendar”. You’ve got to hand it to that publicity team. As far as Ryanair publicity stunts go, this is one of their classier efforts.

Coming from the airline that made headlines recently by announcing a one-toilet policy to make room for six more seats on their Boeing 737-800, it almost feels try-hard. But this too might just be another (successful) attention-grabbing spin on something old. Despite, or perhaps because of, the fleshy presentation, the airline still is one of the most popular in Europe.

Leave it to the Irish to thumb their noses at political correct sensibilities in Europe!

Meanwhile, back in Thailand, Nok Air noticed that Ryan Air had upped the ante and released THEIR new 2013 Calendar for 2013, This one not even pretending to be for charity, and let everyone know right off the bat that the models are NOT flight attendants, but Maxim Magazine models.

But not everyone in Thailand is comfortable seeing the female form displayed in such a fashion.  According to Thai media, the Ministry of Culture’s Permanent Secretary, Prisana Pongtatpitakkul, says the calendar demonstrates that some businesses refuse to stop using women’s bodies as a marketing tool.

“They lack the sense of social and cultural responsibility and ignore social and cultural repercussions — particularly female dignity,” she was quoted by The Nation.

The calendar, issued as part of an online promotion, features models in different outfits posing around Nok Air planes, including a shot with 12 women in yellow bikinis — the airline’s signature color.

Sexy Airline Photos Through The Ages…
[nggallery id=9]

CNN reports Nok Air’s CEO Patee Sarasin hedges on whether his company’s Facebook stunt helped pull in more profits.

“It’s hard to measure if it boosts sales or not,” he says. “Load factor (the number of seats sold for flights) has always been in the 80 to 90 % range. But it did bring Nok Air into the limelight in terms of brand awareness.”

If anything, the charismatic CEO believes the added publicity brought a change to the passenger mix.

Before the photo shoot, international travelers made up 10 percent of the passenger manifest. After the shoot, the percentage jumped to 18 percent based on passport checks.

Of course, the Chinese are also finding new clever ways to cash in on this “sexing it up” marketing ploy.  With the Shanghai-Beijing bullet train, or Gaotie (高铁), now in service, China is ready to impress the world not only with its speed, but also its on-train services.  To ensure every passenger has the best four hours of their life, bullet train authorities have held a national draft and constructed bizarre training courses by way of selecting the best “pretty ladies” to serve on the high-speed rail.  Here’s what they look like:

As for the “training”, here’s an amusing peek at train hostess requirements: Rules for bullet train attendants include:

• Smile with only eight front teeth showing, a feat achieved by daily chopstick-biting training.
• Smile through the eyes. Training for this talent involves covering all facial features save the eyes and smiling to each other.
• The ability to carry out impressive talent shows. Huh?
• Provide “5S” service to passengers. Although many indiscreet Chinese jokes can be fashioned out of it, “5S” actually refers to smile, speed, standards, sincerity and satisfy.Nicknamed the “high-speed sisters” (高姐) by Chinese netizens, the 313 ladies are between 19 and 22 years old. Each stands above the requisite 165 centimeters tall (five feet, five inches).

As for me, I tend to prefer the professional flight attendants we have in North America and Western Europe to these sexy fetish costumed gals hired to boost sales and male passenger loyalty.  In this day and age of having 175+ really pissed-off passengers stuffed into a steel tube going 625 mph at 30,000 feet, wouldn’t you to prefer to have female flight attendants that are well over the age of 21 and have a little biomass, just in case some drunk guy in seat 26B goes ballistic that someone crushed his new fedora in the overhead bin and needs to be subdued? Or some scary “Woman of Walmart” simply wants to hurl a screaming baby down into the cargo hold?

It’s a little hard to play tight end in high heels and a miniskirt and tackle a 300 pound guy going postal! If she is 5 foot 5 inches and weighs in at 95 pounds soaking wet, I sure hope she can use a set of chopsticks as martial arts weapons to restore peace to the realm….