Vietnamese airline fined after hosting bikini dance number

Bikini-clad models put on a show for passengers on a VietJetAir flight on Friday. (VietJetAir/Facebook)

Vietnamese flight officials have fined an airline after it hosted some unorthodox mid-flight entertainment on Friday.

VietJetAir was fined 20 million VND (about $953 CAD) after five bikini-clad models walked out to the aisle during a flight and performed a (loosely) Hawaiian themed dance.

The airline posted a video of the performance to YouTube, which showed passengers holding up their mobile phones and cameras, taking pictures and recording movie clips of the models who were contestants in a local beauty pageant, according to Troi Tre news.

A spokesperson for Vietnam's aviation authorities said that the company was fined because it had violated regulations by organizing an unapproved show on their plane.

VietJetAir replied by saying that the plane had reached a safe altitude before starting the show, and that phones used to record the models were used in movie mode only to avoid risking flight safety (exactly how they ensured passengers did so was unclear).



The show celebrated the opening of the airline's route from Ho Chi Ming City to Nha Trang, a popular holiday location. A company statement said VietJetAir wanted to create a "holiday atmosphere" for its passengers, according to BBC News.

"It was the first flight to a beach town, so we came up with the idea of getting a number of girls in bikinis to dance and make passengers happy to improve our customer service," a VietJetAir spokesman told the Daily Mail.

The bikini show certainly ranks high on a list of unusual in-flight entertainment, but it's not the only time a sky-high performance caught the attention of otherwise sleepy or silent passengers.

In May, Toronto-based band the Lemon Bucket Orchestra broke out the brass and accordions while on a delayed flight from Frankfurt to Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Was the bikini show on VietJetAir's flight appropriate or not? Should they have been fined? What's the most unusual form of entertainment you've experienced in the middle of a flight?