THE QUEEN is not amused – with Ryanair, that is. The low-cost airline has angered Spain’s Queen Sofia for using her photograph, to advertise their flights.
Queen Sofia, who usually flies with the Spanish national airline, Iberia, recently bought a €15 ticket from Santander, where she had accompanied King Juan Carlos at the annual Armed Forces Day parade, to visit her brother, the former King Constantine of Greece, who is recovering from open heart surgery in a London hospital. King Juan Carlos returned to Madrid in his official jet after the parade.
Last week a series of half-page adverts appeared in the Spanish press with a photograph of Queen Sofia under the slogan: “Fly like a monarch! It is a privilege for us that Queen Sofia flies with the airline with the highest growth in Spain.”
Alongside the gushing slogan, the airline promised to donated €5,000 to a charity of the queen’s choice “as a gesture of gratitude”.
The Spanish royal palace was furious and is considering taking legal action against the airline.
“We are angry and surprised,” said a palace spokesman. “No one approached us or asked our permission. We refuse to be involved with this advertisement, which has made improper use of the queen’s image, or to have anything to do with any donation.”
The spokesman added that Queen Sofia had chosen Ryanair “for convenience” because it was the only airline which has direct flights to London from the northern port city of Santander.
This is not the first time that the low-cost airline has trodden on the toes of European leaders for unauthorised use of their image.
In 2007 it was the turn of Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero when the airline queried whether a Ryanair offer of two million free flights was a better deal than the government’s promise to pay €2,500 to every baby born in Spain. It withdrew the campaign after protests from the government, but not until the airline was happy it had received “sufficient coverage” by that time.
It was a little more expensive for Ryanair last year when a French court ordered it to pay €60,000 to President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni. The ad featured a photo of the couple with a bubble coming from the mouth of Ms Bruni reading: “Now all my family can fly to my wedding with Ryanair.” The president was not amused either.