EROTIC airline ads are putting cabin crew at risk of sexual harassment and abuse, Australia's peak flight attendant union says.

The warning comes following an onslaught of sexually explicit advertising campaigns released by airlines around the world.

Earlier this week Russian start-up airline Avianova launched an advertising campaign showing bikini-clad flight attendants washing planes.

Just days later leaked images reportedly taken for Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot’s calendar featured a flight attendant posing completely nude.

Secretary of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia Jo-Ann Davidson said raunchy advertisements are offensive and place cabin crew at risk.

“This type of provocative advertising using cabin crew in this light is not tolerated in Australia and should not be acceptable anywhere else,” Ms Davidson said.

“Such suggestive advertising portraying cabin crew as part of the product they’re selling sends wrong messages and puts cabin crew at risk of sexual harassment and abuse – all for a $10 air fare.

“Cabin crew deserve to work in a safe environment and be treated with respect and dignity.”

Ms Davidson said she is seeking the intervention of the Civil Aviation Section of the International Transport Federation into the matter.

“It’s a sad reflection of the attitude of the airline’s executives – dare I say more than likely middle aged males – towards cabin crew, in particular, female cabin crew by portraying them in such a demeaning, distasteful and irrelevant manner,” she said.

Airlines are increasingly turning to raunchy advertisements in a bid to lure travellers to the skies, but risk offending their passengers in the process.

In pictures: plane porn

UK airline Ryanair is famous for its raunchy calendars and has come under fire over the years for its selection of bikini-clad and topless women.

Meanwhile Spirit Airlines’ recent attempt at sexiness has backfired spectacularly. The airline was accused of poking fun at the BP oil disaster with its new ad which features oil-drenched women in bikinis along with the slogan “Check out the oil on our beaches”.

Just last month the crew of bankrupt Spanish airline Air Comet produced a nude calendar showing staff members in various flight-related poses including one in which a woman is shown stretched on a jet engine clad only in an emergency flotation vest.

Last year US carrier Southwest Airlines decorated one of its planes with Sports Illustrated cover girl Bar Refaeli, who is pictured lying seductively in a revealing white bikini.

It came around the same time Virgin Atlantic was accused of sexism over a steamy ad campaign featuring crowds lusting over sexy female cabin crew, with one man dropping his mobile phone and another squirting sauce from his hamburger down his shirt.

Closer to home, Air New Zealand cabin crew received a whole lot of attention last year when they released an advertisement showing the staff carrying out their duties wearing nothing more than body paint.

The airline found itself in hot water again in January after releasing a campaign portraying single middle-aged women as cougars who prowl bars looking for sex with young men.

Add to the mix television programs such as Virgin America’s Fly Girls, a new show that has been branded demeaning and sexist for reviving the 1960s stereotype of the flirty, glamorous flight attendant, and the culture of sex is well and truly near boiling point.

Raunchy video: Bikini-clad women wash planes

Controversy: Ryanair's calendar girls



Oil-drenched women: Spirit Airlines ad

Bankrupt airline: Cabin crew pose nude

Body paint: Air New Zealand ad

In pictures: plane porn

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