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Jobless Mexican stewardesses launch sexy calendar
Ten stewardesses with troubled Mexicana airlines which filed for bankruptcy in August and suspended operations, launched a sultry aviation-themed calendar in a bid to call attention to their own plight and that of their airline — one of the world's oldest.
The 2011 calendar features glossy shots of the flight attendants, clad only in bikinis and aviation shades or abbreviated uniforms variants, draped over propellers and striking poses in plane cockpits.
"It occurred to me because we all needed money, and I thought that with so many pretty girls (among Mexicana's staff) there were bound to be some who'd be interested," says Mexicana veteran Coral Perez, the mastermind behind the calendar.
Each of the 10 "aeromozas" — or flight attendants in Spanish — who ended up posing forked out money from her own pockets to help cover the production costs of 100,000 pesos (about $8,000). "The goal was to try to help ourselves because we lost everything overnight," said one of the women, 26-year-old Maribel Zavala.
The calendar sparked a media frenzy in Mexico, and the first run of 1,000 was sold out even before Thursday's launch. A second edition of 3,000 calendars — which retail for 149 pesos, or about $12, apiece — is in the works.
The calendar's release followed in the wake of Mexicana's announcement that it would be shedding workers through a restructuring proposal might allow it to resume some flights by mid-December. Under the plan, only 30 per cent of the company's personnel would be rehired.
Founded in 1921, shortly after Dutch carrier KLM and Australia's Qantas airline, Mexicana used to serve 65 destinations in Mexico, the United States, other parts of the Americas and Europe.
