Thaindian News

London, Apr 27 (ANI): Budget airline Ryanair has been criticised by watchdogs for advertising “cheap flights to the sun” that turned out to be chilly destinations.

The banned adverts, for flights starting at just 8 pounds, included a picture of a woman on a sandy beach, wearing a bikini, sunglasses and sipping a cocktail with the slogan: ‘Book to the sun now!’

But one of the destinations was Oslo, in Norway, where the average high temperature for February and March - the period of the offer - is 0c to 4c.

Others with an average of just 6c to 9c were Glasgow, Londonderry, Aarhus and Bilund, in Denmark, and Frankfurt, Hamburg and Dusseldorf, in Germany.

Ryanair was also rapped over another advertisement, which offered flights to Dublin for 27.99 pounds, over complaints that it was apparently impossible to book at the price quoted because of an additional 6 pounds online check-in fee.

The airline was unable to “clarify adequately” how the promotional fare could be achieved, the Advertising Standards Authority said.

The criticism came after Ryanair complained about the ‘We charge you less’ promotion statement by archrival easyJet, which was also slammed by the watchdog.

Ryanair’s objection was upheld and its rival was ordered not to run the advertisement again in its current form.

However, Michael O’Leary’s carrier ended up with the lion’s share of the watchdog’s fire.

“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 Daily Mail quoted it as saying.

“Because we understood this was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading,” it stated.

Responding to the ASA, a spokesman for Ryanair said the airline has noted the ruling. (ANI)