Ryanair's 'Offensive and Sexist' Bikini Girl Cabin Crew Calendar Scrapped

Ryanair's annual Cabin Crew Calendar has been scrapped as the airline bows to pressure from campaign groups claiming it is "offensive", "sexist" and "discriminatory".

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary announced on an Irish radio station on Thursday morning that the charity calendar will not be published for next year.

"We are finalising our charity options for 2015, which will be unveiled soon", O'Leary said. "I think it was a great idea by the cabin crew. It genuinely did raise huge amounts of money for charity and we will struggle to replace it with something as good or as successful."

The calendar, which shows female staff posing provocatively in bikinis and which has been running for six years, was dubbed "sexually suggestive" by the UK's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) in 2011, who said that year's edition was likely to "cause widespread offence".

Shots from the calendar photoshoot were used to advertise the calendar and were deemed "sexist and demeaning" by the ASA. Thousands of people signed an online petition against the ads which were eventually banned by the ombudsman.

Despite the backlash, the airline continued to published the calendar and just last year appeared to be committed to continuing the tradition in the face of mounting criticism.

Spokesperson Robin Kiely said of the 2014 calendar: "There is nothing demeaning about our people volunteering to raise lots of money for very worthwhile charities."

The 2014 edition of the calendar was published in October last year and raised around €100,000 (£78,000) for the Teenage Cancer Trust.