Claims made by Ryanair in ads for the press, TV and radio that it has the ‘lowest emissions’ of ‘any major airline’ have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following a complaint.
The ads, which were seen and heard in September 2019, claimed the Irish carrier is “Europe’s lowest fares, lowest emissions airline”. They said having the “youngest fleet of aircraft, the highest load factors” and the “newest, most fuel efficient engines” means Ryanair produces “66g of CO2 for every passenger kilometre flown”.
A group of complainants including a consultant in energy, transport and sustainable development said that by their very nature airlines do not have low emissions and challenged whether Ryanair’s claims were misleading or could be substantiated.
The ASA upheld the complaint, though it agreed with Ryanair’s argument that consumers are aware that flying is associated with high levels of CO2 emissions regardless of which airline they fly with.
In its judgement, the ASA ruled that the carrier’s qualifier for the claim was that it has the lowest emissions “of any major airline”, without making it clear to consumers that the comparison was not market-wide.
The ASA also took issue with the fact that the ads did not give any information on the metric used to measure the airline’s emissions, how it was calculated, or the role of the seating density in that calculation.
In addition, it ruled that Ryanair’s use of a Eurocontrol chart comparing the top 27 European airlines was misleading because the chart actually scored the carrier fifth for CO2 emissions, while its share of traffic was higher than any other airline. It said the implication of the ad was that by dividing the emissions by the number of passengers, Ryanair would have the lowest emissions per passenger. “However, there were other airlines on the chart that had CO2 emissions which also appeared low relative to their share of air traffic (and thereof similar to Ryanair’s)”, the ASA added.
Ryanair has now been banned from repeating the ads “in their current forms”, and the ASA has instructed the carrier to provide “adequate evidence” to substantiate its claims and “to ensure that the basis of those claims were made clear”.
The airline hit back by maintaining its emissions are 25 per cent lower “than other major airlines” and saying that the “single most important thing any consumer can do to halve their carbon footprint is switch to Ryanair”.
However, a statement said the carrier would comply with the ruling and would also make changes to the claims on its website, though that is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland”, which said it is “assessing the advertising in question”.
Ryanair recently used the claim during its Q3 financial update, in which it revealed it would be delaying passenger growth plans due to late delivery of its first Boeing 737 Max aircraft.