Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) has been told to halt advertising in the United Kingdom that the country’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) deemed as “misleading” over environmental claims, a statement from the regulator said.
The ruling comes after the authority investigated an ad that said “Fly Wizz Air - one of the greenest choices in air travel,” without providing criteria for the description. The marketing was presented as a Google ad, which the ASA saw on June 9.
During the investigation, Wizz Air provided the watchdog with the criteria it used to make the claim, including its fleet age and CO2 emissions per revenue passenger kilometre as well as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) investments. However, the regulator noted that despite Wizz Air having the data to back up its claim, it was not present in the ad, meaning consumers would not necessarily understand the comparison.
Wizz Air is continuing to replace its A320-200 aircraft with A321-200neo aircraft, and the airline stressed that this transition is helping to reduce noise pollution and fuel consumption.
“Because the ad had not made clear the basis of the claim, or provided verifying information, we concluded it had breached the Code,” the ASA said, stressing that Wizz breached rules on misleading advertising, comparisons with identifiable competitors, and environmental claims.
ch-aviation has requested a comment from Wizz Air on the matter.
