ASA Adjudication on Turkish Airlines

Ad

A TV ad for Turkish Airlines showed a plane taxiing through different cities around the world. The voice-over stated " ... Flying to over 150 destinations worldwide with a young and modern fleet. The fastest growing airline in Europe, offering great hospitality, high standards, and aiming ever higher ... ".

Issue

Ryanair challenged whether Turkish Airlines could substantiate their claim to be the "fastest growing airline in Europe".

BCAP TV Code

Response

Cable News Network (CNN) said that the claim was based on monthly statistics released by the Association of European Airlines (AEA). They said those statistics showed that Turkish Airlines' passenger traffic in September 2006 had increased by 23% when compared with the corresponding month from the previous year.  They said that these figures were based on the combination of ASK (Available Seat Kilometre) and RPK (Revenue Passenger Kilometre) figures reported by member airlines of the AEA for the period January to December 2006.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that Turkish Airline's claim to be "the fastest growing airline in Europe" was based on statistics compiled by the AEA. However, we understood that the AEA's statistics referred to their member airlines only, and did not include all airlines operating in Europe, including some low cost carriers. Because the claim "the fasting growing airline ... " was an industry-wide claim, we considered that it should be supported by comparative evidence taken from all airlines in Europe, and should include information gathered over a period longer than one month only.  Because it was not, we concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and 5.2.1 (Evidence)

Action

The ad should not appear again in its current form.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)