Budget European airline Ryanair released its annual Cabin Crew Charity Calendar last week. With glossy pictures of bikini and lingerie-clad models posed in and around the airline’s airplanes, the fourth edition of the calendar may be produced with more care than the airline puts into its maintenance program.

In October, Ryanair had a plane return to the terminal after a crew used tape to secure a window on a flight in Latvia. Less than 20 minutes into the trip, the tape came loose, sending passengers into a panic and causing the flight to be aborted. Worse, the airline maintained that the crew followed normal procedures, meaning that Ryanair apparently believes that tape can hold broken parts of a plane together during a flight.

Of course, if an airline was so cost-conscious that it started taking toilets out of airplanes to include an added seat, it might see duct tape as a luxury item. That same thought process and attention to detail may guide all of the company’s decisions, judging by the music and art direction of the 2009 “Making of the Ryanair Charity Calendar” video. And of course there’s a “Making of…” video?

In addition to placing parts of Ryanair’s male passengers in the upright position, the Cabin Crew Calendar will hopefully raise nearly 100,000 Euro ($137K US dollars) for a charitable fund. Over the past three years, the Ryanair calendar has raised 400,000 Euro ($551K US dollars) for charity. Obviously none of that money went into plane repairs. Though it could buy a ton of duct tape.

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