It’s tough to be an airline in Vietnam. VietJet Air was the first private airline to gain approval to operate in Vietnam in November 2007. And yet it didn’t actually begin operations until December 2011, with regulatory issues contributing to the delay.

They expected AirAsia to take a 30% stake, but that airline pulled out over Vietnamese regulatory challenges.

Today the airline operates 3 leased Airbus A320 aircraft.

This month they faced a new regulatory challenge as they were fined 20 million Vietnamese Dong over unapproved inflight entertainment.

It wasn’t a problem with the installation of a seatback video system. Instead, 5 bikini-clad candidates in a local beauty contest performed a dance onboard the airline’s inaugural flight to Nha Trang.

Since the 3-minute show had not been approved in advance, it was deemed a violation of aviation and security regulations. And the airline was held responsible.

On the other hand, though, 20 million Dong is about US$959, which probably isn’t a bad price to pay for a 5 person bikini show in the sky, which a passenger on the flight posted on YouTube.