'Bikini airline' places $6.5 billion order for 50 additional jets

Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, is one of Asia's richest women. The self-made billionaire, age 47, is the owner of VietJet, Vietnam's first private airline.

In recent years, VietJet has rebranded itself as the bikini airline, featuring women who wear bikinis on some flights. It was fined in 2012 for "hosting a mid-flight dance by bikini-clad beauty pageant contestants without first gaining permission." Despite receiving fines and warnings, the airline continues to employ scantily clad women. It seems to have been a profitable decision: it just placed a $6.5 billion jet order with Europe's Airbus for 50 aircraft.

The airline promised not to bikini-clad attendants on flights to Indonesia, so as not to offends sensibilities in that country. "VietJet is a budget airline and they will open a route to Indonesia without the bikinis," said Indonesia's ambassador to Vietnam, Ibnu Hadi.

Images: VietJet