A Thai airline that hired ladyboys to serve as cabin crew has taken to the skies.

PC Air, which operates routes across Asia out of Bankok's Suvarnabhumi airport, had initially planned to only hire male and female staff.

But the airline received more than 100 applications from transsexuals and decided to hire four. Nathatai Sukkaset, 26, Dissanai Chitpraphachin, 24, Chayathisa Nakmai, 24 and Phuntakarn Sringern, 24.

They join 19 female and seven male flight attendants on the airlines fleet of planes.

PC Air's maiden flight took place between Bangkok and Surat Thani on Thursday.

"Today, we are ready to embark on the new journey and we would like to introduce our four transsexual angels," PC Air president Peter Can told the passengers before take off.

Can had previously said that the recruitment process for transsexuals was slightly difficult that for female or male flight attendants.

"For male flight attendants, if I don't want to hire them, it's because of their attitude or their characters, like the way they walk and smile. For female flight attendants, if they have no patience and their character does not qualify, we won't hire them,' he said.

"For transsexuals, we can't just spend five or ten minutes with them, we have to spend the whole day with them to make sure they have feminine characters."