THAILAND: Newly formed Thai airline, PC Air, becomes the first to hire transsexual flight attendants

Record ID: 334804

  • Title: THAILAND: Newly formed Thai airline, PC Air, becomes the first to hire transsexual flight attendants
  • Date: 10th February 2011
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (FEBRUARY 9, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF PC AIR BUILDING MODEL PLANE TRANSSEXUAL AND FEMALE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS WALKING INSTRUCTOR DURING MAKE-UP TRAINING WOMAN LOOKING AT MIRROR MAKE-UP TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT LOOKING ON INSTRUCTOR PUTTING POWDER ON TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT FEMALE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS INSTRUCTOR GIVING MAKE-UP LESSONS TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT INSTRUCTOR PUTTING FOUNDATION BASE ON TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT DURING MAKE-UP LESSON TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT LISTENING SIGN FOR PC AIR (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) 24-YEAR-OLD TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT, CHAYATHISA NAKMAI, SAYING: "I'm very happy. When I knew that I got this job, I burst into tears because I'm very happy. I had sent many applications to different airlines." FEMALE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TRANSSEXUAL AND FEMALE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS DURING MAKE-UP TRAINING SESSION TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT HAVING LIPSTICK APPLIED FALSE EYELASHES TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT DURING HAIR-DRESSING TRAINING SESSION VARIOUS OF TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT LOOKING AT MIRROR FLIGHT ATTENDANTS DURING TRAINING SESSION TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) 23-YEAR-OLD TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANT, DISSANAI CHITPRAPHACHIN, SAYING: "People will keep their eyes on us to see if transsexual like us will be able to do this job properly or not. There will be more pressure. So we have to prepare ourselves more than the women." VARIOUS OF FOUR TRANSSEXUAL FLIGHT ATTENDANTS POSING PRESIDENT OF PC AIR PETER CHAN CHAN SIGNING LETTER APPLICATIONS OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS CHAN (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) PRESIDENT OF PC AIR PETER CHAN, SAYING: "It's very difficult to select the transsexual flight attendants. For male flight attendants, if I don't want to hire them, it's because of their attitude or their characters like the way they walk and smile. For female flight attendants, if they have no patience and their character did not qualify, we won't hire them. For transsexuals, we can't just spend 5 or 10 minutes with them, we have to spend the whole day with them to make sure they have feminine characters." HAIRDRESSER CUTTING HAIR OF MALE FLIGHT ATTENDANT MALE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS LOOKING ON HAIRDRESSER CUTTING HAIR OF MALE FLIGHT ATTENDANT
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand, Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVAF3MIGA5QZOKJGCHLGZ47GC59P
  • Story Text: A newly formed Thai airline PC Air wants to create a different image to their competitors by hiring transsexual flight attendants.
    Attractiveness and femininity was an important qualification for transgender candidates who want to join the new charter airline which will begin operations in early April.
    The airline has recruited four transgender, 19 female and seven male attendants but said they want to employ more transsexual employees on their flights in the future as the Department of Civil Aviation have no objection to hiring the "third-gender".
    The 30 qualified flight attendants were brought to PC Air office for make-up and hairdressing training session before the flight service to Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.
    PC Air initially only wanted to recruit male and female cabin crews but received over a hundred transvestite and transsexual applications for the job - only four of which were chosen.
    "I'm very happy. When I knew that I got this job, I burst into tears because I'm very happy. I had sent many applications to different airlines," said 24-years-old transsexual flight attendant Chayathisa Nakmai.
    The airline recruitment has drawn attention from the public as it is the first airline to employ transvestites and transsexuals, commonly referred to as "ladyboys".
    New ladyboy cabin members said they needed to work harder than women to prove that they could do the job.
    "People will keep their eyes on us to see either the transsexual like us will be able to do this job properly or not. There will be more pressure. So we have to prepare ourselves more than the women," said 23-year-old transsexual flight attendant Dissanai Chitpraphachin who was crowned as Thailand's most beautiful transvestite in 2007.
    The airline said the qualification for ladyboy attendants is same as the female flight attendants but they need to be alike women -- with feminine voice, the way they walk and talk and need to have the right attitude.
    While the airline strives fro equality, PC Air president Peter Chan who chooses the transvestite and transsexual cabin crews himself, admitted he needed to spend longer interviewing ladyboy applicants to pick the right candidate.
    "It's very difficult to select the transsexual flight attendants. For male flight attendants, if I don't want to hire them, it's because of their attitude or their characters like the way they walk and smile. For female flight attendants, if they have no patience and their character did not qualify, we won't hire them. For transsexuals, we can't just spend 5 or 10 minutes with them, we have to spend the whole day with them to make sure they have feminine characters," said Chan.
    Thailand is well-known for it's transvestite and transsexual population - Chan said the candidates do not need to be transgender as long as they look like women.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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