Melbourne, Feb 12 : A US airline has started a controversy after it decorated one of its planes with a picture of Sports Illustrated cover girl Bar Refaeli in a sexy swimsuit.

The Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700, which was unveiled for the first time at La Guardia aiport in New York, has its whole length decorated with a picture of Refaeli lying seductively in a revealing white bikini.

The plane will be flying between New York and Las Vegas and it will bear the sexy image on its fuselage for a limited time, reports News. com. au.

The controversy came up after it was revealed that in 2007 a Southwest Airlines employee had allegedly ordered a passenger off a flight for wearing a revealing outfit.

Kyla Ebbert, 23, from San Diego claims she was only wearing a snug-fitting white top with a scoop neck that stopped just short of showing cleavage during the incident.

Ebbert said the flight attendant suggested she go to a gift shop to buy clothes. She offered to pull the top of her jumper tight over her breasts and her skirt down as far as possible, a compromise that was accepted.

The incident caused uproar in the US, with Ebbert appearing on a series of chat shows before posing for Playboy magazine. (ANI)