Thai Transgender hostesses go airborne

And one of the greatest publicity strategies in aviation history keeps on giving.

P.C. Airlines, a tiny Bangkok-based carrier you've never heard of, has finally taken to the skies with four lovely transgender stewardesses, according to the Bangkok Post. In fact, if it weren't for these stewardessess, no one would have paid much attention to P.C. Air.

But owner Peter Chan has whipped up media attention (like the kind I'm giving him now) by flouting a rule of thumb observed by other Thai airlines: no hiring transgender stewardesses.

Instead, Chan very publicly sought transgender stewardesses. He calls the ones he's hired his "four angels." They now belong to a 30-person hostess crew.

Hiring discrimination against male-to-female transgenders is rife in Thailand — see this Global Post story on transgender military draftees — and air hostess gigs are highly coveted.

Perhaps P.C. Air's publicity gambit will nudge other airlines into hiring transgenders so that, eventually, hiring them will seem totally unremarkable.