European budget carrier Ryanair has once again courted controversy with the release of its 2011 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar featuring its young female crew in swimwear.
Ryanair Calendar 2011 cover
First launched in 2008, the annual calendar features female flight attendants from the airline posing in bikinis, often on board or beside Ryanair planes.
The charity calendar partnership has been running since 2008 and Ryanair hopes to bring total proceeds from all calendar sales to date to over €400,000. The proceeds of Ryanair’s 2011 cabin crew calendar will bring the total raised by Ryanair’s sexy cabin crew to over €400,000 since the first calendar in 2008. The 2011 edition will raise up to €100,000 through the sale of 10,000 calendars onboard Ryanair flights, from www.ryanaircalendar.com or from Tafel Bundesverband in Germany for just €10.
Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar 2011
The calendar which features young bikini clad cabin crew and refers to the women as ‘the girls’ has been branded demeaning and sexist by members of the public every year since it was first published.
The 'hot' calender
The Institute for Women in Spain made an official complaint to Ryanair in 2008 after consumer group FACUA took offence at the calendar. The calendars which have shown ‘the girls’ posing by and inside aircraft have also sparked complaints that photos of male cabin crew should also be included.
This year, the company has been cheeky enough to ask passengers what kind of calendar it wanted: one of male ?ight attendants, the traditional one featuring female ?ight attendants, one of passengers, or a joke alternative of ‘geeks’ at Eyjafjallajökull.
Miss May 2011
Miss June 2011
As expected, it was the usual female ?ight attendants’ alternative that won, with the result launched in Berlin today. The photo shoot for 2011 took place in September at Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands.
Sexy shots of Ruanair cabin crew girls featured in the calender
The airline has pulled back slightly from the nudity of some of the pages of the 2010 calendar, which attracted criticism this time last year. Authority reprimanded it for producing an advert with a photograph of a girl dressed like a schoolgirl with the headline, “hottest back to school fares”.
Ryanair’s crew chose the German charity “Tafel”, after over 400 charities across Europe applied for the charity calendar partnership. This is the first year a German charity will receive the donation and follows strong sales of the 2010 cabin crew calendar in Germany, where over 30% of the 2010 cabin crew calendars were sold. In previous years, Ryanair has supported Angels Quest, KIDS and the Dublin Simon community. Those who want to help ‘Tafel’ and bring a smile to someone’s face all year long can buy 2011’s hottest calendar onboard Ryanair flights, on Ryanair.com or from local Tafel centres.”
Miss February 2011
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary, for the third year running, has brushed off the continued criticism of the calendar, saying that the calendar raises money for charity.
Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary with two of the flight attendants who feature in this year's 'Girls of Ryanair' charity calendar
“Ryanair’s cabin crew stunners are delighted once again to strip off for charity and this year they’re doing it for the ‘Tafel’ charity in Germany. We hope that the 2011 Charity Calendar will raise up to €100,000 to help ‘Tafel’ deliver even more food to people in need throughout Germany,” O’Leary said.
Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary with one of the flight attendants who feature in this year's 'Girls of Ryanair' charity calendar
Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary with two of the flight attendants who feature in this year's 'Girls of Ryanair' charity calendar
Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary with two of the flight attendants who feature in this year's 'Girls of Ryanair' charity calendar
“We are delighted Ryanair’s cabin crew chose to partner with Tafel for the 2011 Ryanair Cabin Crew Charity Calendar and we thank everyone at Ryanair on behalf of our 50,000 volunteers who deliver food every day to people in need throughout Germany. Ryanair’s 2011 Cabin Crew Calendar donation will help the Tafel deliver even more food to children and those who need it most and we encourage German passengers to buy even more Ryanair cabin crew calendars this year in the knowledge that every €10 they spend on the cabin crew calendar goes straight to Tafel,” says Tafel’s Chief Executive, Gerd Häuser.
Given the press it gets, Ryanair was unlikely to go away from its cabin crew calendars, despite criticisms of sexism and exploitation of women.
Watch the video showing the photo shoot for the calender:
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