UK’s Advertising Standards Agency slams Wizz Air for false green flying claims

In the UK, Wizz Air Hungary Ltd (Wizz Air) said it had committed billions of Euros to aiding the airline industry’s decarbonization efforts. They operated the youngest and most carbon-efficient fleet in Europe, with an average age of 4.3 years. As a result, they had the lowest carbon emissions per passenger at 52 g carbon dioxide per revenue passenger kilometres (CO2/RPK). RPK was the number of seat kilometres flown by paying passengers – a figure that had been independently verified. They provided a copy of the report from which the figure had been taken.

Wizz Air explained that they were actively renewing their fleet of aeroplanes – replacing the Airbus A320ceo aircraft with the Airbus A321neo, with a reduction in fuel consumption of 10% and a per-seat fuel improvement of 20%. The Airbus A321neo was the widest and most efficient single-aisle aircraft with the lowest fuel consumption per seat kilometre in its category. Additionally, the newer model gave a 50% reduction in noise compared to the older model.

Wizz Air had invested in the research and development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). They were an equity investor in SAF, having invested in two companies developing the fuel, and had concluding offtake agreements to purchase SAF once it had been produced. They aimed to reach 10% SAF usage by 2030, exceeding the ReFuel EU Aviation Regulation requirements. They held membership of the Alliance for Zero Emission Aviation (AZEA) and the Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance (RLCF) to ensure investment and deployment of future technologies in the field.

The CAP Code stated that the basis of comparative claims such as “greener” or “friendlier” must be made clear. It also required that comparisons with identifiable competitors were verifiable and needed to include, or direct consumers to, sufficient information to allow them to understand the comparison, and be able to check the claims were accurate, or ask someone suitably qualified to do so.

The UK’s Advertising Standards Agency ruled the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.33, 3.35 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors), 11.1, and 11.3 (Environmental claims).

The ad must not appear again in the form investigated. The ASA told Wizz Air Hungary Ltd to ensure the basis of future comparative environmental claims was made clear and did not give a misleading impression of their flights’ environmental impact, and that ads provided sufficient information to enable consumers to verify comparisons with identifiable competitors or signposted consumers to such information.