Luton airport green pledge ad banned for failing to include flight emissions

Luton Rising said the ads were to illustrate that mitigating environmental impacts was central to expansion plans. The campaign stated the framework, which placed limits on noise, air quality, emissions from the airport’s operations and road traffic, would halt expansion if breached or there was a risk of a breach and that this was summarised in the ads.

However, the ASA ruled consumers would understand the main source of emissions from expanded operations would come from additional air traffic movements. 

“They would therefore not expect those emissions to have been omitted from the Green Controlled Growth Framework’s limits,” it said.

The ASA concluded the ads “omitted significant information and were therefore misleading”.

The sanction is the latest in a travel greenwashing crackdown by the ASA and others.

The authority rapped Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Etihad in December for false claims about the environmental benefits of travelling with them. 

In May last year, Intrepid Travel was told not to use a campaign that used the phrase "planet-friendly small group adventures".

Meanwhile, in May this year, the European Commission gave 20 unnamed airlines a month to clean up their act after identifying many potentially misleading environmental claims.