Ryanair was banned today from claiming its London-to-Brussels flights were faster and cheaper than Eurostar.
The budget airline's advert compared its one-hour-10-minute flight to the two-hour-11-minute train trip. But travelling from London and Brussels city centres to the two airports used by Ryanair would add a total of 1hr 45min to the total journey time, the Advertising Standards Authority said.
London Stansted airport is around 25 miles out of London while Charleroi is around 28.5 miles out of Brussels, the watchdog found. Ryanair's national press advert breached advertising rules relating to substantiation, truthfulness and comparisons with identified competitors.
The ASA also upheld a complaint from Eurostar about Ryanair claiming its London to Brussels flights were "cheaper" than the train link.
"Ryanair one way - from £15 - taxes and charges included. Eurostar one way - from £27 - taxes and charges included", its advert said. But transfer costs from both airports to London and Brussels city centres would cost a minimum £8 each.
"We considered that many readers would not be aware of the locations of the airports and the additional costs incurred," the ASA said. For this reason Ryanair's "cheaper" claim was "likely to mislead", the watchdog ruled.
The airline's advert also claimed its London to Brussels flights were "more punctual" with 89% of flights on time compared to 83 per cent of Eurostar trips.
But the airline had taken Eurostar's punctuality figure from a BBC online article which was more than two years old. Eurostar Group challenged the claim, saying its own figures showed punctuality rates of 91.5 per cent on its London-Brussels and London-Paris routes.
The ASA also found that claim in breach of advertising rules. It told Ryanair to remove the claims "Brussels faster and cheaper" and "more punctual" from similar adverts.
Responding to the investigation, Ryanair argued that its advert made clear its flights went from London Stansted.
It said the time taken to get to the airport or train station was "irrelevant" because its advert only compared flight times to Eurostar train times.