Ryanair has been rapped for claims surrounding its CO2 emissions after the Advertising Standards Authority discovered that revelations made in a recent advertising scheme could not be supported. The budget airline named itself to be the “lowest emissions airline” in Europe and a “low CO2 emissions airline”. However, watchdogs found that there was little evidence to prove this claim.
An advertising scheme across television and radio cited its “low CO2 emissions”, meanwhile a print run of advertising claimed, “Ryanair has the lowest carbon emissions of any major airline”.
Furthermore, passengers were told they could have their carbon footprints if they switched to Ryanair.
Yet critics were quick to flag the statement, arguing that airlines by their nature do not have low emissions.
However, the airline was quick to backtrack once complaints were made.
Ryanair stated the phrase “low CO2 emissions” mean “less than average”.
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The ASA also pointed out Ryanair’s use of the term “major airline.”
In its assessment, the body stated: “Ryanair had compared themselves against four other airlines, which they said fell within the definition of a ‘major airline’, but there was no commonly recognised definition of a ‘major airline’.
“We considered consumers would understand it simply to mean those airlines they had heard of, particularly given that the headline claim gave no indication that the comparison was not market-wide.”
The regulated added: “Consequently, we concluded that the claims ‘Europe’s… Lowest Emissions Airline’ and ‘low CO2 emissions’ were misleading.”
The ASA decided that the adverts must not be repeated “in their current form.”
The body 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.”
However, Ryanair has said that it is “disappointed and surprised” by the ruling.
The airline maintains that it is “the greenest” airline in Europe.
In a statement, the company said: “Ryanair’s CO2 emissions per passenger-km is 66g, which is 25% lower than the other major European airlines.
“Ryanair is delighted with its latest environmental advertising campaign, which communicates a hugely important message for our customers.
“The single most important thing any consumer can do to halve their carbon footprint is switch to Ryanair.
“We successfully ran this advertising message in 10 countries across Europe.
“We made minor adjustments to the advertising in the UK market at the request of the relevant approval bodies.
“We were surprised we had to make these small changes, as the message was approved in other markets and we provided all the supporting data they required.”
Consumer rights agency Which? recently ran an investigation which similarly highlighted Ryanair for its low emissions.
Rory Boland, Which? Travel Editor, 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.”