{"id":13817,"date":"2012-08-10T01:08:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T01:08:38","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T11:01:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T11:01:47","slug":"vietnam-fines-airline-for-dancers-in-bikini-tops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=13817","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam fines airline for dancers in bikini-tops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vietnamese officials have fined a budget airline for having beauty contestants in bikini-tops dance aboard a plane without authorisation, state-run media has reported.<\/strong><\/p>\n

VietJetAir was fined 20m dong ($956; \u00a3611) for the Hawaiian-themed dance<\/strong> on its first flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang, Tuoi Tre newspaper says.<\/p>\n

Passengers filmed the five women on their mobile phones on 3 August.<\/p>\n

Officials say VietJetAir had “violated local aviation regulations”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision to fine the airline was reached after officials met on Wednesday, the newspaper reports.<\/p>\n

A statement on the company’s website says that it wanted to capture a “holiday atmosphere” for its new flight route to Nha Trang, one of the country’s most popular holiday destinations.<\/p>\n

“Once passengers stepped on board they were met by flight attendants dressed in beach holiday attire [who] performed a sexy Hawaii dance,” it said.<\/p>\n

Nguyen Trong Thang, chief inspector of the country’s civil aviation body, was quoted as saying that the airline “had violated the local aviation regulations by organizing unapproved show on a plane”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But he stressed that the mobile phones used to film the dance were in safe mode.<\/p>\n

Videos of the women dancing for three minutes that were posted online stirred public debate in the conservative country, reports say.<\/p>\n