Ryanair’s not a good sport

Posted by airobserver on March 4, 2010 · 1 Comment 

Seems that Michael O’Leary hasn’t taken well to easyJet’s latest ad campaign. Funny, since two weeks ago, Ryanair’s the one that got the ball rolling, when it advertised about easyJet’s on time performance. Ryanair’s latest ad, showed Stelios with a Pinocchio nose, as it claimed that easyJet is not truly a low fares airline but rather a high fares one. The second point Ryanair argued, is that easyJet’s on time performance is so embarrassingly bad that the Orange company doesn’t want to make its figures public. Later, on Ryanair’s website, the public was invited to help Ryanair decide “how it should settle its differences with easyjet, and what to do over easyjet’s failure to publish its awful punctuality statistics”.

According to me, Ryanair’s ad was a low blow, simply because Ryanair is not a member of the IATA, and as such are not mandated to publish its punctuality records… Seeing as we only have Ryanair’s word on their punctuality, its claims and accusations against easyJet are not, what one could call, legitimate.

Shortly after Ryanir’s low blow, easyJet fought back with another advertising campaing. (See the picture below) EasyJet points out the fact that Ryanair destinations are quite ambiguous. According to me, EasyJet’s ad hit the mark: Ryanair mainly flies to secondary airports, about an hour away from the city centre. A good example is Beauvais, a small city an hour and half busride from Paris. In reaction to this, Ryanair complained to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) stating that the ads implied false advertising on Ryanair’s behalf as the arrival city were not those advertised in its marketing.

The ASA finally ruled that easyJet’s ads were “defamatory” and banned the poster campaign.

As for me, I don’t think that it’s actually fly very clear where Ryanir flies to. Honestly, when you fly to a destination, you only expect to land in that one city. However, when you book a flight to Paris through Ryanair.com (as the picture below shows), you have two destinations… Paris first, then Beauvais, which ultimately the one you’ll firstly be setting foot in, until you rummage your way back to the first advertised destination, and by bus at that. Is that what Ryanair calls a clear and comprehensive website?

To be fully transparent, Ryanair would have to advertise the only city it flies to: Beauvais.

For those who have difficulties with Ryanair’s website’s “clear” booking conditions, here is a helpful guide!

Filed under AO Article · Tagged with advertising stunt, Easyjet, Ryanair