Airline passenger news and views

Advertising watchdog has banned Ryanair to promote spring flights using an ad featuring a model wearing a bikini for consider it misleading as no available destination was warm enough.

The Advertising Standard Authority, ASA, received a complaint that the campaign "Book to the sun now," ran by Ryanair and promoting cheap tickets in February and March, was inadequate, since the maximum temperatures in the 11 promoted locations, including Glasgow, Lourdes, Rimini and Oslo, were under 10C.

The warmest three locations among the total of the campaign - which promised tickets from £8 - have an average of 10C-14C during that period, while the coldest, Oslo, doesn't usually exceeds 4C. Seven of them were between 7C and 9C.

"We considered that the average consumer would infer from the claim 'Book to the sun now' and the image of the woman sunbathing, in a bikini, with a cocktail, that the promotion included fares to destinations warm enough to sunbathe in swimwear during the promotional period," the ASA said. "Because we understood this was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading." The ban means that ASA will not allow Ryanair to use such an advert in the future.

Ryanair says that their intention was to show the significant amount of daytime sunshine during those months in those destinations.

A second Ryanair ad has also been banned by ASA. The ad advertised a one-way flight quoting   a ticket price that was not available due to a non-optional check-in fee of £6, which is always included.

The ASA asked Ryanair to ensure that prices featured in their ads were genuine and could be obtained by customers without the addition of non-optional fees and charges.

This is not the first time ASA and Ryanair clash over advertising campaigns. In 2008 the budget airline and ASA submitted formal complains to the Office of Fair Trading over an escalated dispute after a series of banned ads by the watchdog.

The most notorious was an ad featuring a schoolgirl in a Britney Spears style quoting "Hottest back to school fares," which ASA considered a link between schoolgirls and sexually provocative behaviour

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