Vietnam’s VietJet Aviation said Thursday it was standing by a controversial “bikini” calendar, a marketing ploy featuring scantily clad female models that has prompted criticism in conservative Southeast Asia and beyond. The annual calendar, which has gone viral online, is part of a broader marketing push by VietJet that has propelled the start-up airline’s rapid growth, as it has taken market share from Vietnam Airlines. The publication of the 2018 calendar - which critics say overly sexualizes the image of flight attendants and other airline staff - comes as there is a growing debate in the global airlines industry about sexual harassment and in-flight assault of both passengers and employees. VietJet, founded by Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao - Vietnam’s first female billionaire and one of a handful of women running a major airline globally - said the calendar emphasized free choice of people to wear whatever they wanted. “We are not upset when people associate us with the bikini image. If that makes people delighted and happy, then we’ll be happy,” said Luu Duc Khanh, VietJet’s MD. When asked about the views of Thao, Khanh said the CEO thought people “have the right to wear whatever they like, bikini or traditional ao dai”, referring to the traditional Vietnamese long dress. The calendar has caused an online storm in Vietnam, with some people criticizing and others defending the campaign. The 2018 calendar and a YouTube video of the photo shoot have been viewed more than 910,000 times since first appearing at the end of last month. <br/>
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Jeju Air transported over 10m passengers in a year for the first time in its 11-year history, the nation's leading budget carrier said Thursday. The airliner, which began operations in June 2006, has become the country's only low-cost carrier reaching the milestone of 10m annual passengers. Full-service airliners, such as Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, were the only airline two companies to reach that record up to now. The cumulative number of passengers of the air carrier was 48 million as of Dec. 18. That number has grown rapidly, surpassing 10m in May 2012, 20m in July 2014, 30m in January 2016 and 40mi in February this year. This means that the figure has grown 40 times in a decade. The annual growth rate has been 40% on average over the past 11 years.<br/>
A Washington state family is suing Alaska Airlines and a contractor for allegedly neglecting to properly care for a disabled 75-year-old grandmother who suffered a fall down a Portland International Airport escalator in June and later died. After her flight from Hawaii landed in Portland in June 2017, contractors at the airport assisted Bernice Kekona into a seat-belted wheelchair, both the lawsuit and the airline said. The employees from Huntleigh, USA were supposed to transport the 75-year-old grandmother to her next gate, according to the family, but she was somehow left alone. According to the lawsuit, Kekona showed her ticket to an Alaska Airlines employee stationed at her arrival gate who gestured the direction the grandmother needed to go in. Minutes later, the lawsuit says, Kekona was moving through the airport, confused and lost. She stopped at a security checkpoint and an airport store looking for her departure gate. Airport surveillance video obtained by ABC-affiliate KXLY, shows Kekona at the top of an escalator, which she later said she thought was an elevator. By the time she realized her misjudgment, her wheelchair was on the escalator and she was tumbling nearly 21 steps down the moving escalator. Kekona and her chair were eventually uprighted, but she was hurt. Her family says she suffered trauma to her head and chest, a cut to her Achilles tendon and gashes on the side of her face. Federal law regulations require airlines to provide assistance to the disabled when traveling, including when making connections.<br/>