Ryanair forced to concede irregularities in its pricing

oft_ryanair According to an official statement from the Office of Fair Trading –
“Ryanair has taken a number of voluntary steps to increase the clarity and transparency of its website and other advertising after reaching an agreement with the OFT.”

Those of us who use airlines a lot are tired of misleading promotions. In a recent altercation with the Advertising Standards Authority, Ryanair was asked to demonstrate that it did indeed have:- 2 MILLION SEATS FROM £10 ONE WAY, TAXES & CHARGES INCLUDED as stated in its ads.

Ryanair could only find 2 booking forms that qualified for this fare and the advert was withdrawn…This was the adjudication that finally led Ryanair to the doors of the OFT.

Now we need to see some proper fines for this type of behaviour because it’s wholly unfair on the rest of the airline industry and on advertisers in general.

On a day to day level, an advertised price of £10 or something ridiculous is promoted at the front end of the website, but by the time you’ve got a seat and booked your luggage in, another £100 has been added to your bill.

Following todays ruling, this should now be stopped and apparently, Ryanair has now implemented the changes required. Hmm…

At Loudhailer we have to deal with the ASA and OFT regularly on behalf of clients. We’ll be keeping a close eye on whether the OFT has the muscle to keep up its end of the deal and ensure that Ryanair doesn’t invent some new way to step out of line…

I’m sure I’ll find out the next time I book a flight to Ireland or England…

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