Letter to the Advertising Standard Agency regarding Easy Jet Adverts

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The advert titled “Care about the environment? We do too!” by Easy Jet claims that aviation accounted for 1.6% of global greenhouse emissions and with the implication that this is small overall impact.

This advert overlooks the fact that international travel is not included in aviation emissions. When these are taken into account, aviation contributes 6% of the UK CO2 emissions (see government report SG/SG/3760, House of Commons Library). Furthermore, once the radiative forcing impacts of aviation emissions are taken into account, the impact of this is significantly increased. The advert also does not reference the fact that air transport is expected to contribute up to 60% of the UK global warming impact given current anticipated growth rates.

The advert implies that Easy Jet is committed to the environment by removing 22 older generation aircraft and replacing with newer aircraft. This is misleading. Easy Jet would have replaced these aircraft anyway as they would any other plane that is approaching the end of it service life. Furthermore the main thrust behind this initiative is to reduce operating costs, rather than improve the environment as stated in the article.

The article also implies that travelling by Easy Jet is environmentally friendly as they achieve “27% lower emissions per passenger kilometre” than traditional airlines. This is potentially misleading on two counts.

Firstly, without clear evidence of boarding across airlines their 27% lower emissions figure can not be verified. The Civil Aviation Authority does not publish seat utilisation by company. (See http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?categoryid=80&pagetype=88&sglid=1&fld=200611). It is also not clear in the advert what Easy Jet considers to be a traditional airline. In very small print Easy Jet state the comparator basis being “27% lower emissions on a per passenger kilometre basis with the same age, journey and type of plane as a traditional airline.” However, on many Easy Jets routes, “traditional airlines” do not fly, thus making their comparator inaccurate.

Secondly, the statement of a 27% lower emission per seat overlooks the fact that Easy Jet’s total emissions have increased significantly. Furthermore Easy Jet is actively engaged in lobbying the government to support additional expansion of airports in the UK which will lead to a significant increase in total Easy Jet emissions as well as a significant increase in overall UK CO2 emissions.

The advert thus erroneously implies that flying with Easy Jet is environmentally responsible, when in fact the reality is that it may only be marginally less environmentally damaging than flying with a traditional airline.

I will be forwarding this correspondence on to my MP, David Drew.