Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, of which both were Not upheld.
Ad description
A website, www.worldairlineawards.com, for Skytrax, an online airline review company, featured text on the "Award Promise" page that stated "We let customers make their own choice". Further text in the body of the ad stated "Travellers from over 160 countries take part in the world's largest airline passenger satisfaction survey to decide the award winners, and a key part of this is for Skytrax to deliver transparency of the survey and Awards process. Some key elements of the World Airline Awards promise are listed below: ... There is no third party survey involvement or sponsorship of the Survey process ... There is no third party involvement in Awards data assessment, with winners named directly by customers ... The directive is for customers to make their own, personal choices as to which airlines they consider to be the best - underlining the brand as the Passenger's Choice Awards ... Skytrax track record and passionate desire to maintain independence and transparency for each element of it's customer surveys and awards process have earned the World Airline Awards it's reputation as the Passenger's Choice awards. Edward Plaisted of Skytrax commented: ‘We operate these Awards on a not-for-profit basis, and apply the most rigorous monitoring to the survey process, and we can guarantee that there is no outside influence or airline involvement. The integrity and reputation of these Skytrax Passenger's Choice awards relies on our ability to maintain transparency across all areas of the survey and awards format. We know that some Award winning airlines are not the favourite of everyone, and we receive vocal feedback and complaints from a few users each year when the results are published. However, we can do no more than reiterate and remind them that Award winning airlines are decided by airline customers, and not by Skytrax.’”.
Text on the page headed "Survey Methodology for 2014 World Airline Awards" stated "Operating since 1999, the World Airline Survey is held in high esteem for it's [sic] clarity of Survey process and rigorously applied rules of complete independence. No outside sponsorship, advertising, payment or external influence is applied to any part of the Survey, making it a most respected global airline passenger study".
The "Airline of the Year" page featured text that stated "Cathay Pacific Airways is named World's Best Airline by winning the 2014 Airline of the Year award at the World Airline Awards". The page included a list of 10 airlines beneath the heading "WORLD AIRLINE AWARDS Airline of the Year 2014". Ethiad Airways was placed ninth in the list.
Issue
Etihad Airways, who believed that their ranking was not consistent with other performance awards and ratings given to themselves and other airlines, including Skytrax's own star rating and an Airs@t survey in which they had previously performed better than airlines ranked above them in the Skytrax survey, challenged whether the following claims were misleading and could be substantiated:
1. that the Airline of the Year 2014 results and Etihad Airways' ranking reflected the results of independent consumer surveys; and
2. that the results were independent and had been obtained with no third party involvement.
Response
1. & 2. Skytrax Research said the World Airline Awards and the World Airport Awards were generally known by the airlines and media as the Passenger's Choice Awards. They provided a selection of quotations from representatives of various airlines, including Etihad Airways, which they believed demonstrated that. They provided spreadsheets for the 2013−2014 survey period that listed the number of participants from each country, the airlines nominated and the monthly voting totals. They provided an extract of raw survey data and said they were willing to provide further data to verify the Airline of the Year 2014 results.
Skytrax Research said the results directly reflected the results of the surveys and there was therefore no judging panel involved in producing the results. They explained that they did not compare their survey results with the results of other surveys because they believed their results accurately reflected the customer's choice. They said that rankings frequently changed and provided a document that demonstrated the changes since 2013.
Skytrax Research said they intended the word independent to mean that the survey was free from control, influence, support and aid of others. They said the annual survey was conducted over a nine- to ten-month period on a dedicated website, which was designed, managed and funded by Skytrax Research, and was offered in English, Russian, Chinese and Korean. They explained that entry to the survey was available worldwide and that they did not require airlines to pay a membership to be included in the survey. They said all airlines were able to invite customers to participate in the survey, but could not offer an inducement to consumers to encourage voting. They said they had never received payment or subscription from an airline and that the survey was not connected to a trade association. They said their surveys had no voting restrictions and respondents were free to nominate any airline. They explained that the nomination of the world's best airline was via a free text box completed by respondents, rather than respondents selecting an airline from a pre-defined list of airlines.
Skytax Research said that, if an individual completed more than one survey, for example for different categories, they had in place sufficient checks to ensure they were only counted once as a participant. They said it was compulsory to submit an email address when completing a survey, and that they sent an acknowledgement email after every survey completion. They said that, combined with further checks on IP addresses, they were confident their survey monitoring system was robust.
Assessment
1. & 2. Not upheld
The ASA noted Etihad Airways' view that their performance in additional awards and surveys demonstrated that the Airline of the Year 2014 results did not reflect the results of an independent consumer survey. We understood Etihad had concerns that the Skytrax Research star ratings previously given to them and other airlines did not correlate with the rankings in the survey, but considered that third party, standardised audit ratings and customer service voting surveys were not sufficiently similar for a lack of agreement between them to provide grounds for upholding the complaint. Similarly, although we acknowledged that Etihad performed better in some aspects of the 'Airs@t' survey than other airlines that ranked higher in the Skytrax Research survey, these surveys had different methodologies. We therefore considered that they were not directly comparable and, again, did not provide grounds to uphold objections to the claims about the results of the Skytrax Research survey.
The ad included claims, such as "The directive is for customers to make their own, personal choices as to which airlines they consider to be the best - underlining the brand as the Passenger's Choice Awards" and "Cathay Pacific Airways is named World's Best Airline by winning the 2014 Airline of the Year award". In that context, we considered consumers would expect the Airline of the Year 2014 award reflected the results of respondents' selection of the airline they considered to be the best and we understood that to be the case. We considered the achievement of additional awards and rankings did not demonstrate that the Airline of the Year 2014 awards were an inaccurate reflection of respondents' selections in the survey.
Skytrax Research provided details of the survey methodology, a sample of data, monthly survey totals and the overall rankings of all nominated airlines. They also provided information regarding the process they used to ensure that individuals who completed more than one survey were only logged once for the purposes of the claim. We considered the methodology used by Skytrax Research was sufficiently robust to ensure the Airline of the Year 2014 results were independent and an accurate reflection of the survey. We therefore concluded the claims had been substantiated.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules
3.1
3.1
Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.
and
3.3
3.3
Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
(Misleading advertising) and
3.7
3.7
Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.
(Substantiation), but did not find it to be in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
