Only a few days after Russian low-cost airline Avianova launched a TV ad campaign that featured flight attendants stripping off to bikinis to wash a plane (see below)…comes a new calendar from Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, that features naked flight attendants posing with aircraft.
Needless to say, this raised a few eyebrows in circles wider than just the airline fraternity when images from the calender were leaked onto the internet ahead of its release.
The 2011 calendars will apparently be distributed to VIP members of the airline’s loyalty program and seems to fit nicely into the rest of Russia’s sex-soaked culture. Each page features one of the airline’s female flight attendants in some state of undress. And by that, we mean completely, utterly and unashamedly butt naked.
Calendars from airlines featuring scantily-clad flight attendants are nothing new. Dublin-based carrier Ryanair has courted controversy on more than one occasion with its annual flight attendant calendar, while cabin crew of troubled Spanish airline Air Comet released a nude calendar only a few months ago in March to draw attention to their unpaid wages.
And last week, US carrier Spirit Airlines came under criticism for ads featuring bikini models covered in sunscreen that many said made light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.
But Aeroflot’s calendar goes considerably further by featuring far more explicit images than any of its predecessors.
The Pirelli calendar of passenger planes: this is the only pic where she hasn't got her bits out
Meanwhile, the airline has also been attempting to improve the etiquette of its passengers. Earlier this year, Aeroflot banned the sale of alcohol in economy class on some routes as a result of several mid-air incidents involving drunken fights and other examples of bad behaviour. Aeroflot said it had targeted specific routes that were well known for binge drinking by passengers and consequently the number of on board incidents has been reduced.
And it’s not just the passengers, a video showing two Aeroflot pilots allegedly getting stoned smoking a bong in the cockpit surfaced on the web in March of last year.
Scott Snowden
Great safety advert for Russian Airlines!!!