Stansted has been banned from advertising a 70% pre-booked car parking offer after it was found to be misleading.
The advertising watchdog upheld a complaint against Stansted owner Manchester Airports Group over the ad which appeared on the airport’s website in July.
Publishing its ruling, the Advertising Standards Authority said: “We told Stansted airport to ensure that future pre-booking savings claims made clear if there were circumstances under which the customer would pay a higher rate for pre-booking than the equivalent ‘Turn up and Park’ rates.”
The ASA added: “Given that there were circumstances under which customers would be quoted a higher price for pre-booking than the ‘Turn up and Park’ rate, which was not explained in the ad, we concluded that the claim was misleading.”
The airport admitted that because online prices were calculated on a ‘per day’ basis and that the pre-book savings offer was dependent on the dates searched for by customers, car park stays under 24 hours or 24 hours that spanned two days “might not benefit from the pre-book savings offer”.
Stansted insisted that 20% of customers obtained savings of 70% or more.