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London/Dublin (pte071/15.12.2004/17:10) - Low-cost airline Ryanair http://www.ryanair.com has had to withdraw its latest advertising campaign, in which it claimed to be better than its rival, the British budget airline Easyjet http://www.easyjet.co.uk . It is now the sixth time this year that the Dublin-based airline has been censured by the British advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) http://www.asa.org.uk . ASA ruled that Ryanair was wrong to claim it beat Easyjet every week with "more passengers, cheaper prices and better punctuality".
The latest Ryanair advertisement to run into trouble was a newspaper campaign, in which the company cited false punctuality statistics from the Association of European Airlines (AEA) http://www.aea.be and showed that "Ryanair beast Easyjet every week for on-time flights." The watchdog investigated following complaints from Easyjet. However, the association said it did not compile statistics on Ryanair or Easyjet, since neither of them were members. ASA warned Ryanair "not to misattribute statistics in future advertisements."
ASA has also criticised Ryanair for falsely claiming that Spanish destinations Girona and Reus served Barcelona, which are a considerable distance from the Catalonian city. The body said airlines should not claim airports served specific cities unless those airports were listed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as doing so. In March, the ASA upheld a complaint about a Ryanair advert that used a photograph of Prince Charles without his permission. Further advertisements by Ryanair that featured scantily clad women were also banned by the ASA this year for being offensive.
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