Airline Advertisements

[News Guru]

[textarea]ASA bans Air Malta and Flybe ads

Air Malta and Flybe have been criticised over misleading advertising campaigns. Complaints against ads for both airlines been upheld by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).

The Air Malta advert promoted £99 return flights to Malta on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham airports. It was banned after the ASA found there was no ‘reasonable prospect of obtaining seats at the advertised price’ at any of the airports mentioned plus flights from Birmingham to Malta did not operate on Fridays and Mondays.

Flybe has been forced to withdraw a promotional email offering bonus flights where passengers were paying taxes and charges often amounting to more than the airfare. The ASA ruled that the advert, which promoted the Flybe Card and offered a free return flight, could not run unless taxes and charges were mentioned in the body copy as opposed to the small print.

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[News Guru]

[textarea]Ryanair gets easyJet ad banned

easyJet has been criticised by the ASA and had one of its advertisements banned after rival Ryanair complained over the ad, which was promoting cheap business flights. Ryanair objected that the claim ‘We charge you less’ was misleading because its fares were cheaper than easyJet’s on a number of routes.

easyJet defended its headline claim ‘The new shape of business travel’ along with multiple references to ‘business travel,’ saying that this made it clear that the ad was targeted at corporate travellers rather than leisure flyers and that it communicated the advantages of business travel.

The ASA dismissed easyJet's argument that because Ryanair did not fly from the same main airports or offer business travellers an equivalent product its fares should not be compared to easyJet's.

The ASA said: ‘We considered that the ad did not make clear the nature of the comparison being made in the claim ‘We charge you less’ and that, without further information, consumers would be unable to establish the circumstances in which easyJet was claiming to be cheaper than other flights for business travel.'

The ASA ruled that the ad was misleading and easyJet was ordered not to run it again.

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