No-frills carrier Easyjet plans to appeal against a ruling from the Advertising Standards Agency that it misrepresented its green credentials.
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the airline had misled the public with an advert that appeared in the Newcastle regional press in 2007.
An Easyjet spokeswoman said Easyjet was planning to appeal against the ASA’s adjudication.
“We do have one of the youngest and therefore most efficient fleets in the industry,” she said.
In the ad, Easyjet claimed its fleet was greener than that of rival airline Jet2, because its aircraft were younger.
While the ASA ruled it was ok for Easyjet to use the statement “Fly Greener, Fly Easyjet”, the watchdog found the ad had been misleading on two other counts.
In the ad, Easyjet said that because its planes are younger, they are more efficient and less damaging to the environment, which the ASA found to be deceptive.
This was because the age of planes was not the only factor which needed to be taken into account when assessing whether travelling in Easyjet’s planes was less damaging to the environment on a per passenger basis than travelling in Jet 2's planes.
According to the ASA, the load factors, aircraft maintenance and flight times also needed to be taken into account.
The watchdog also found that Easyjet had breached advertising codes, because it had “no objective means for verifying the comparison”.