Ryanair’s Ad Ban

RYANAIR’S AD BAN

RYANAIR has been banned in its advertising from claiming its London to Brussels flights are faster and cheaper than Eurostar’s train service.

An advert for the airline compared its 70-minute flight to the 131-minute train trip.

However, travelling from London and Brussels city centres to the two airports used by Ryanair adds one hour and 45 minutes (105 minutes) to the total journey time, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reported.

Stansted Airport is around 40km outside London, while Charleroi is around 46km outside Brussels, the watchdog found.

As a result, Ryanair’s national press advert breached advertising rules relating to substantiation, truthfulness and comparisons with identified competitors.

The ASA also upheld a complaint from Eurostar about Ryanair’s claim that its London to Brussels flights were ‘cheaper’ than the train link.

However, transfer costs from both airports to London and Brussels city centres would cost a minimum of E11 each.

For this reason Ryanair’s ‘cheaper’ claim was ‘likely to mislead’, the watchdog ruled.

(c) 2007 Daily Mail; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.