Around the world, airlines are increasingly coming under scrutiny from regulators, courts, and even advertising and consumer agencies over misleading claims they are making about their efforts to promote sustainability, sometimes called, “greenwashing.”
The most prominent is a civil suit filed in the Netherlands, however other complaints and cases have been building up.
Britain’s advertising watchdog has recently criticized Ryanair, Lufthansa and Etihad for either alleged instances of oversimplifying their claims, or providing outright misleading environmental claims.
Ryan air referred to itself as Europe’s “lowest emission airline,” while Lufthansa has referred to itself as “protecting the future,” and Etihad has called itself “sustainable aviation.” The watchdog warned all the airlines that they should not use wordings which would imply their airline’s activities were good for the environment.
The director of complaints and investigations at Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Miles Lockwood, said, “One of the things we just caught onto was that a lot of airlines are making claims about sustainability and eco-friendly, sustainable choices, greener choices,” however, “air travel is one of the most significant (carbon) contributors that consumers make every year.”
In a statement to Reuters, Ryanair said it supplied everything the relevant authorities had requested for its 2019 campaign, and that the ASA’s ruling was surprising and disappointing.
A spokesperson for the Lufthansa group told Reuters, “The Lufthansa Group provides fact-based information about the measures the company is taking to make its flight operations more climate friendly,” adding it examines all incoming complaints carefully.
Etihad simply said the ASA”s 2022 ruling against it had left it disappointed.
According to Lockwood, the ASA is planning to use machine learning tools to scan advertising online to find any potentially misleading advertising.
In a separate case, Lufthansa’s Austrian Airlines wing was warned by Austria’s advertising watchdog to cease making claims about a flight that used biofuel being carbon neutral.
Meanwhile Delta Air Lines is facing a proposed class action lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles due to advertisements in which the airline touted itself as “carbon neutral” due to it purchasing offset carbon credits. The lawsuit says that carbon offset programs do not work as they claim, and the airline misled its customers.
A Delta spokesperson told Reuters, “This lawsuit is without legal merit,” noting the airline was working towards a goal of zero emissions and is moving away from carbon offsets.
