Preamble

The Covid pandemic has deeply affected the aviation industry. Airlines had it difficult to survive the crisis because lockdowns and travel restrictions: air traffic almost stopped during Winter 2019-2020, and only freight transportation activities continued their operations. Thanks to the arrival of vaccines, and after the adaptation to several variants and evolutions of the pandemic worldwide, the aviation industry benefitted from a slow ramp up of activities.

We are today in February 2024. The international air traffic has not yet met its levels from before the crisis. Lots of airlines got bankrupt during the pandemic, even main airlines supported by their national governments had to close and sharply reduce their activities. Air traffic resumed faster in Asia than in the rest of the world. Most airlines located in Europe and in Northern America still struggle to find ways to survive. To adapt and rejuvenate their business models, some of them started to operate niche markets or try to attract new categories of customers.

The journey towards kinky evolutions started in Vietnam during the Summer of 2023. The competition between low-cost carriers was so intense that some airlines started to treat their customers with specific bonuses and free services. The problem with such a bloody competition is always the same: these airlines only make their money in selling lots of different services. Customers finally end up paying as much money as with other airlines without noticing the traps behind the small fees linked to each additional service. However, there is a limit when trying to incentivize customers towards new services when they do not have enough money. To beat its competition, a Vietnamese company decided to operate specific routes in adapting the flight attendants’ uniforms. They started with tennis outfits on flights operated to cities hosting major events on the tennis circuit in China or in the USA. Female flight attendants started to wear tennis dresses with traditional spanks or bloomers on these flights before they were made to wear skimpy thongs under shorter dresses. The airline also tested with great success bikinis for routes towards sunny holidays destinations. They started with conservative one-piece suits at the beginning before transitioning towards sexy string bikinis and thongs after checking the acceptability by passengers. The also asked their flight attendants to wear extremely high cut one-piece suits that left almost nothing to the imagination. Flight attendants were also mandated to have a Brazilian wax or a permanent depilation to accommodate the narrow strip barely protecting their modesty.