Spanish judge bans ads for Ryanair's bikini charity calendar

A Spanish judge has banned adverts for Ryanair's charity calendar featuring bikini-clad flight attendants - because it's 'sexist'.

Judge Amanda Cohen ordered the budget airline to drop its annual Girls of Ryanair campaign following a formal complaint from a consumers group.

Complaints were made as early as last March about the "sexist" calendar.

The calendar famously shows female cabin crew wearing skimpy bikinis, and raises thousands of pounds for charity every year. In fact, Ryanair has raised €700,000 for charity through calendar sales since it began in 2008, and the 2014 edition's proceeds will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

But Spanish group Adecua claimed the calendar is advertising with "sexual connotations" and called for it to be banned.

At the Commercial Court in Malaga, Judge Cohen ruled the cabin crew are shown in "a sexually suggestive manner" and that "the female body is being used as a mere object and as part of the appeal of the advert", reports the Independent.ie.

While she praised the airline's "laudable charity work", she said the calendar is "illegal, discriminatory and unfair".

In a statement to the Daily Telegraph, Ryanair's Robin Kiely said: "We have instructed our lawyers to appeal this ruling regarding last year's (2013) cabin crew charity calendar, which raised over €100,000 for a Polish charity, the TVN Foundation, to help sick children in Poland.

"This case and ruling only relates to specific adverts run in November and December 2012 and has no effect on Ryanair's continuing charity work or our current 2014 cabin crew charity calendar."

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