The Advertising Standards Agency has again cracked down on airlines for what it calls misleading claims about sustainable flights.
Virgin Atlantic produced an advert for the world’s first transatlantic flight to be 100% powered by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
This was misleading, the ASA said.
The airline didn’t qualify its ‘100% sustainable aviation fuel’ claim.
The agency banned the advert.
All further Virgin Atlantic ads referring to SAF benefits must include verifiable information explaining the environmental impact of the fuel, the ASA says.
The radio ad was originally aired last November.
“Virgin Atlantic’s Flight 100 will take to the skies on our unique flight mission from London Heathrow to JFK to become the world’s first commercial airline to fly transatlantic on 100% sustainable aviation fuel,” the ad stated.
The ASA said listeners would presume that ‘100% sustainable aviation fuel’ meant exactly that but that was not the case, the ASA said.
Virgin Atlantic then confirmed to the ASA that the SAF powered flight emitted the same amount of CO2 as conventional jet fuel.
“It’s important that claims for sustainable aviation fuel spell out what the reality is so consumers aren’t misled,” said the ASA’s director of complaints and investigations Miles Lockwood.
