ASA Adjudication on Ryanair Ltd

Ad

A press ad for Ryanair stated: "The lowest fares from Britain. £10 All In! One way taxes & charges included. Ryanair.com. Book until midnight 28.09.06. Subject to availability, terms and conditions. Flights direct from selected Ryanair UK Airports."

Issue

1.  A reader challenged the availability of flights at the advertised fare.

2.  The ASA challenged whether fares to all Ryanair's destinations were available at £10.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. & 2.  Ryanair supplied examples of bookings on flights to Barcelona and Bratislava, the two destinations cited by the complainant, during the time of the offer.  The tax-inclusive price in both cases was £10.  In both cases a credit card handling fee of £1.75 was added and in one case a baggage fee of £3.50 was added, but Ryanair said both those charges were avoidable.  Ryanair also supplied a report listing the selected Ryanair UK airports that it was possible to fly from and the destinations that it was possible to fly to under the offer (including those cited by the reader); the total number of flights from Ryanair's UK airports to destinations outside the UK and the number of those flights that were available under the offer.  The report stated that more than 60,000 £10-inclusive seats were sold across Ryanair's entire system during the four-day period of the offer, with more than 350 £10-inclusive fares from the UK to Bratislava and more than 1,900 £10-inclusive fares from the UK to Barcelona Girona during that period.  Ryanair said they believed the qualification "Subject to availability" covered the fact that not all seats on all the flights from the selected Ryanair UK airports were available at the £10-inclusive price.

Assessment

1.  Upheld

The ASA noted the ad qualified the offer with "Subject to availability, terms and conditions.  Flights direct from selected Ryanair UK Airports."  We also noted that Ryanair had supplied examples of an individual seat in each case that was sold to the destinations cited by the complainant as well as information stating the total number of £10-inclusive seats sold across their entire system over the four-day period of the offer, including those to the destinations cited by the reader.

We considered that the report Ryanair supplied demonstrated that quoted fares were available in sufficient quantities to ensure a reasonable prospect of readers obtaining a flight at the advertised price to the destinations covered by the offer, including the two destinations cited by the reader.

We noted, however, that the CAP Help Note on Travel Marketing stated that if not all seats were available at the quoted fare, ads should state prominently that prices were "from."  We considered "subject to availability" was not an adequate substitute for the word "from" in those circumstances because readers might infer that all seats were available at £10 but those seats were limited in terms of their availability.  Had the ad prefixed £10 with "from," we considered that Ryanair would have substantiated the availability of flights at the advertised fare.  Because it did not, we concluded that it suggested wrongly that the quoted price applied to every seat on all flights to non-British destinations that Ryanair operated to from the selected UK airports.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 16.1 (Availability of products).

2.  Not upheld

Notwithstanding the problem with the ad identified in point 1, we considered that the report Ryanair supplied demonstrated that £10 fares were available in sufficient quantities to the non-British destinations served by the selected UK airports included in the offer.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation), 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 16.1 (Availability of products) but did not find it in breach.

Action

We told Ryanair to amend their ad to state that the price quoted was a "from" price and welcomed their willingness to do so.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)