An Airline's Bikini-Clad Flight Attendants Is Helping To Create Southeast Asia's First Female Self-Made Billionaire
Pics: VietJetAirline passengers expect friendly and helpful staff when they board a plane but a new low-cost Asian airline has taken 'service' to another level, by getting their flight attendant into bikinis for its flights to beach destinations.
Pics: VietJetAs you can expect, the service has been a big hit with customers and the airline, VietJet, looks set to go public in the next few months, making its CEO an instant billionaire.What's more surprising is the owner is a woman, who made her first million at the age of 21 by selling fax machines and latex rubber while studying finance and economics in Moscow, Bloomberg Billionaire's Index reports.
45-year-old entreprenuer Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao is set to become Vietnam's first female billionaire as the proposed public offering of her company's shares will take her net wealth to over US$1 billion (over RM3.91 billion). Currently, the main bulk of her wealth is invested in her stake in VietJet, which she reportedly holds 90%, and the rest from her holdings in real estate development in Ho Chi Minh City.
Pic: Bloomberg
Pic: BloombergSet up in 2014, Thao's budget carrier currently has routes to 47 locations in the country and across Asia, including Seoul, Bangkok and Singapore. Earnings have been climbing steadily, with a revenue of 10.9 trillion dong (over RM1.9 billion) in 2015, up 34.5 per cent from 8.1 trillion dong in 2014, Air Transport World reports.
However, the move to get her flight attendants into skimpy bikinis put the budget carrier on the international map when the news made headlines worldwide and revealed Thao's sharp business acumen.
"I worked so hard and earned the trust of suppliers by always being honest with them," said Thao, whose mother was a teacher and father, a pharmacist, bloomberg.com reports in an interview with the businesswoman earlier this month.
"I didn’t have much money. They gave me more and more products with longer credit terms.
"I’ve never sat down and calculated my assets.
"I’m just focused on how to boost the company’s growth, how to increase the average salary for my employees, how to lead the airline to gain more market share and make it number one,” she shared about what empowers her drive to become Vietnam's first female billionaire.
Pic: VietJetOn accusations of sexism and exploitation that have been hurled at her, Thao says that the move is actually empowering images in Vietnam’s conservative culture.
Pic: VietJet"You have the right to wear anything you like, either the bikini or the traditional ao dai," she said, referring to the familiar Vietnamese flowing 2-piece costume.
"We don’t mind people associating the airline with the bikini image. If that makes people happy, then we are happy."
Malaysian Digest
