Watchdog accuses Ryanair of greenwashing and bans low-emissions ads
Ryanair has been accused of greenwashing by the Advertising Standards Authority after misleading claims on advertisements that it was the lowest CO2 polluter among major European airlines.
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The budget airline has run an advertising campaign claiming it was “Europe’s lowest fares, lowest emissions airline”.
The claims are based on the airline being the lowest CO2 emitter per passenger per kilometre flown because it has the youngest fleet, the highest proportion of seats filled on flights and the most efficient engines.
However, one of the charts Ryanair presented to the Advertising Standards Authority to back up its claims was dated 2011, which according to the watchdog is “of little value as substantiation for a comparison made in 2019”.
The ASA added: “In addition, some well-known airlines did not appear on the chart, so it was not clear whether they had been measured.”
The regulator ruled that the ads were misleading and banned the campaign because the airline had failed to substantiate its environmental claims.
The claims could be misleading because there is no common definition of what a "major airline" is, the watchdog said.
“The ads must not appear again in their current forms,” the ASA said. “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.”
The watchdog said that customers would interpret the ads' claims to mean travelling with Ryanair contributed less CO2 than doing so with competitors, which could not be proved.
The ASA added: "We told Ryanair to ensure that when making environmental claims, they held adequate evidence to substantiate them and to ensure the basis of those claims were made clear."
Transport and Environment, which campaigns for cleaner travel in Europe, accused the airline of "greenwashing" in its campaign.
They said: "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 tax exemption."
A Ryanair spokeswoman answered by saying that the company had abided by the UK advertising code: “Ryanair is both disappointed and surprised that the ASA has issued this ruling given that Ryanair fully complied with advertising regulations, engaging with regulators and providing documentation that fulfilled all the substantiations needed.”
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.”