Ad description
A TV ad, a radio ad and a poster for Ryanair:
a. The TV ad, seen on 26 September 2017, featured images of people travelling on a Ryanair plane. The voice-over stated, "Discover why more and more people are choosing Europe's number one airline." On-screen text stated "IATA Scheduled passengers carried: 2016".
b. The radio ad, heard on 4 October 2017, featured the claim "Discover why we're Europe's number one airline."
c. The poster, seen on the London Underground on 2 October 2017, featured the claim "EUROPE's NO.1 AIRLINE".
Issue
Thirteen complainants, who noted that Ryanair had cancelled many of their flights in September and October 2017, challenged whether the claim "Europe's number one airline" in ads (a), (b) and (c) was misleading.
Response
Ryanair said the claim “Europe’s number one Airline” was a statement of fact, supported by a third-party statistical report, and therefore not misleading. They said the claim was based on the most recent International Air Transport Association (IATA) World Air Transport Statistics 2017 report for air travel in 2016, which found that Ryanair was the world’s largest airline for international flights and Europe’s largest airline for international and domestic flights combined.
Ryanair said their recent cancellation of flights did not materially alter the fact. The cancellations affected less than 0.5% of their 129 million customers in 2017. Further, their October 2017 traffic grew by 8% to 11.8 million customers, even when the flight cancellations were included.
Ryanair said the on-screen text “IATA Scheduled passengers carried: 2016” in ad (a) was sufficiently clear to communicate the basis of their claim. They said ad (b) directed consumers to their website for full details of what the claim was based on. They said due to an oversight the same qualification was not included in ad (c), but they had taken steps to ensure that it did not occur again.
Clearcast said they had approved ad (a) in light of the IATA data. They said the recent cancellations of Ryanair flights was unrelated and would not alter the validity of the “No. 1” claim, as the measured findings of the IATA still stood. They said while viewers may have formed opinions of the advertiser given the press coverage, that opinion alone was not sufficient to render the claim misleading.
Radiocentre said they cleared ad (b) in light of the IATA data, which confirmed that Ryanair was the number one airline in Europe as it had the highest number of passengers. They said that this was in line with the Committee of Advertising Practice’s guidance on “number 1 claims”. They said that the airline’s cancellation of flights should not affect the claim, as listeners would still understand the claim to mean the highest number of passengers.
Assessment
Not upheld
The ASA considered consumers were likely to understand the claim “Europe’s number one airline” in each ad to mean that over a reasonable period before the ads were produced Ryanair had carried more passengers than any other European airline. While we acknowledged some of the complainants’ views of Ryanair were that it was not their personal number one airline due to the recent flight cancellations, we considered they would nevertheless still interpret the claim to be an objective statement about the number of passengers who had travelled on Ryanair flights compared to all other European airlines.
Ryanair had based the claim on data from the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) World Air Transport Statistics 2017 report for air travel in 2016, which showed Ryanair had carried more scheduled passengers than any other European airline encompassing domestic and international flights. We considered it was appropriate to rely on the most recent data from the IATA to substantiate the claim.
We further noted Ryanair had carried over 40 million more passengers than the European airline ranked second and the number of flight cancellations in 2017 was less than 645,000. Therefore, there was no indication that the flight cancellations would prevent Ryanair from carrying the most passengers in 2017.
Because the most recent available figures showed Ryanair had carried more passengers than any other European airline, we concluded that the claim “Europe’s number one airline” was unlikely to mislead consumers.
We investigated the ads under BCAP Code rules 3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 3.9 3.9 Broadcasters must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that the audience is likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation), 3.33 3.33 Advertisements that include a comparison with an identifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, consumers about either the advertised product or service or the competing product or service. (Comparisons with Identifiable Competitors), and CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. (Misleading advertising), 3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation. (Substantiation) and 3.33 3.33 Advertisements that include a comparison with an identifiable competitor must not mislead, or be likely to mislead, consumers about either the advertised product or service or the competing product or service. (Comparisons with Identifiable Competitors), but did not find them in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
