乘泰國航空 看人妖空姐

The president of the first Thai airline to hire transsexuals as flight attendants on Thursday said he was a "pioneer" and predicted other carriers would follow his lead.

Fledgling airline PC Air has already recruited six crew of the "third sex" and boss Peter Chan said recruitment, driven by a belief in equal rights, would continue.

"I think these people can have many careers, not just in the entertainment business, and many of them have a dream to be an air hostess. I just made their dream come true," he told the reporters.

Thailand has one of the largest transsexual populations in the world and its surgeons have pioneered ever cheaper and quicker sex change techniques for those opting to go under the scalpel.

But the airline does not require applicants to have gone through a surgical procedure, merely that they meet job criteria, including language skills and good service.

"When it's their dream job or the job they love, they can do it even better," Chan said.

"Our society has changed -- it's evolution. I'm an pioneer, and I'm sure there will be (other) organisations following my idea."

More than 100 transsexual people applied for the first round of jobs.

Among the successful applicants was Thanyarat "Film" Jiraphatpakorn, winner of the Miss Tiffany beauty pageant in 2007, according to a report in Thailand's Nation newspaper.

"At first I thought they would just take applications but not actually recruit us, as happened at other places before," said the 23-year-old, adding that she was delighted to have been chosen.

The airline is not yet in operation, but hopes to be fully up and running by April with charter flights across Asia.

泰國一家航空公司首開先例，僱用變性人擔任空服人員。該公司總裁本週四表示，他成爲該領域的“先驅”，預計其它航空公司也會效仿。

新近成立的PC航空公司已僱用了6名“第三性”擔任空服。老闆陳彼得稱，此番招募是受平權理念的啓發，還將繼續。

他在接受記者採訪時說：“我覺得變性人可以從事很多種職業，不單單是娛樂業。很多變性人都夢想能當上空姐，我只是幫他們圓了這個夢。”

泰國的變性人口總數在全球居首，該國外科醫生爲選擇變性的人首創出更廉價、更快速的變性技術。

但PC航空公司並不要求應聘者都做過外科變性手術，只要符合語言能力、服務水平等方面的工作要求即可。

陳先生說：“只要她們想要成爲空姐，或者她們愛幹這一行，就可以做得更好。”

“我們的社會已經變化了，是進步了。我就是個先鋒，我很肯定會有其它機構效仿。”

在首輪招聘中，100多名變性人提交了申請。

據泰國《國家報》報道，成功應聘者包括2007年“蒂芬尼小姐”選美比賽獲獎者譚雅娜。

23歲的譚雅娜說：“我原本以爲他們只是收收申請擺擺樣子，但不會真的錄用我們，就像其它公司那樣。”她還說很高興能被僱用。

這家航空公司還沒有正式運營，但希望能從4月份開始如期運營，並開通穿越亞洲國家的包機。

Vocabulary:

fledgling: young, new, or inexperienced（初出茅廬的，無經驗的）

transsexual: of, pertaining to, or characteristic of transsexuals（改變性別的，兩性間的）

up and running: 全面而準確地運行

charter flight: an aircraft flight that has been arranged and paid for by an individual or group for a specific trip（包機）