Airlines have wings clipped

WHEN is Easter not Easter? When Ryanair says so, it would appear ... although the no-frills airline has been left with Easter egg on its chin for running a misleading advertisement to promote special offers last April.

Ryanair and rival Aer Lingus had their wings clipped yesterday by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) for using advertising that misled the public.

Ryanair was the subject of several complaints to the ASAI for running ads offering “Easter Specials” that excluded travel at Easter.

Although Easter Sunday was April 20, the offer was only available for travel on April 28-June 14.

Ryanair, which was fined about €2,700 by a Danish court last week for illegal advertising, was also reported to the ASAI by Aer Lingus for an ad which carried the wording: “Aer Lingus ripped you off and they still do.” Aer Lingus complained that average fares quoted by Ryanair in the ad were vastly inflated and grossly misleading. In response, Ryanair said it based its figures on Aer Lingus’ own annual report.

However, the ASAI ruled that Ryanair had not made comparisons between fares charged by the two airlines in a fair way. It said Ryanair’s suggestion that Aer Lingus was ripping off consumers was denigrating and unjustifiable.

The national airline itself was the subject of a complaint to the ASAI from a customer who had bought a ticket on the Aer Lingus website for his 16-year-old daughter to Boston for €577.96 including taxes and later discovered another website that offered fares to the same destination for over €100 less.

The ASAI agreed with the complainant that the strapline “For the cheapest Aer Lingus fares each way” on the airline’s website was misleading.

Overall, the authority upheld over 85% of complaints received in the past two months against advertisements from companies including Irish Ferries, CIE Tours and EMI.

The ASAI also expressed concern that it had received 36 separate complaints on various grounds about an ad to promote Eircom’s I-stream broadband services. The authority said that broad unqualified claims as used by Eircom were not suitable for complex products and services.