Ryanair’s boasts over its green credentials have been ruled as misleading and banned by the advertising watchdog.
The ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority today followed complaints over the no-frills carrier’s claim to be ‘Europe’s lowest fares, low CO2 emissions airline’ in TV, press and radio adverts.
A consultant in energy, transport and sustainable development was among those who complained atout the claims.
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Many complainants believed that by their nature airlines did not have low emissions, challenged whether the claims ‘Europe’s … Lowest Emissions Airline’ and ‘low CO2 emissions’ were misleading and could be substantiated, according to the ASA.
Upholding the opposition to the adverts, the ASA said: “While we considered the claims in the ads would be understood relatively and while we were satisfied that CO2 per passenger distance was an appropriate method to compare the carbon footprint of passengers on different airlines, we were concerned that the basis of the claims had not been made clear in the ads and that the evidence provided was insufficient to demonstrate that Ryanair was the lowest carbon-emitting airline on the basis of that metric.
“Consequently, we concluded that the claims ‘Europe’s…Lowest Emissions Airline’ and ‘low CO2 emissions’ were misleading.”
The ASA added that the three sets of adverts “must not appear again in their current forms”.
The watchdog added: “We told Ryanair to ensure that when making environmental claims, they held adequate evidence to substantiate them and to ensure that the basis of those claims were made clear.”
Ryanair argued that the press advert “clearly explained the basis of comparison”.
The factors that led to the airline’s superior performance were its young fleet of aircraft, point to point routes, fewer empty seats and higher seat density.
Ryanair said the claim ‘low CO2 emissions’ meant “less than average”.
All three adverts directed consumers to the environmental page on the carrier’s website to allow them to review and verify the claims.
Commenting on the ruling, Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said: “A recent Which? investigation found Ryanair flights had the joint lowest carbon emissions per passenger on the routes we analysed.
“However, we also found some ‘carbon offset’ schemes offered by Ryanair do little or nothing at all to reduce carbon emissions.
“Millions of travellers want to make greener choices when they go on holiday, so the regulator is right to crack down on companies that make this more difficult with misleading information.”
Jo Dardenne, aviation manager at campaign group Transport & Environment, said: “Ryanair should stop greenwashing and start doing something to tackle its sky-high emissions.
“This ruling is a reminder that the aviation sector’s climate impact is soaring because of a decades-long tax holiday and almost zero regulation of their pollution.
“European governments must without delay agree bilaterally to tax jet fuel until EU vice-president Timmermans secures the end of the tax exemption.”