The girls of Ryanair

The Ryanair Calendar is now on sale onboard all Ryanair flights starting Saturday November 17th, with all proceeds benefiting charity Angels Quest, which provides respite care for children with special needs.

I have some special needs of my own, my wife calls it charity work too.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has revealed his latest wheeze to squeeze a bit more cash out of his customers, though this time the proceeds will go to charity, rather than straight to his bottom line.

My immediate reaction was to wonder whether O’Leary was trying to encourage his cabin crew to wear clothes less regularly, in order to save ‘wear and tear’ costs. But apparently the plan is to raise money for children’s charity Angels Quest. So although it may sound like the kind of exploitative misogynist stunt that would antagonise feminists everywhere..... never mind, I'm sure it will anyway.

Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance to peruse the calendar, so I'm unable to judge whether it provides good value for money. But judging by Ryanair’s typical mark-up on a Kit-Kat, I'm guessing that it might be cheaper to head down to your local library and pick up a Maxim instead…"We are seriously considering making that the new inflight uniform," leers the Ryanair boss, who's planning to sell 15,000 copies at €5 a pop for a children's charity. O'Leary hints the airline's forthcoming charitable work may also include "a sneak preview of the Aer Lingus 2009 calendar with some granny in a swimsuit".