UPDATE 1-Budget carrier Ryanair ordered to drop low-emissions ad claims

(Adds Ryanair emissions data, background)

By Alistair Smout and Laurence Frost

LONDON/PARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Budget carrier Ryanair was
ordered on Wednesday to withdraw publicity describing it as a
"low-CO2 emissions airline", as Britain's main advertising
watchdog labelled the claim misleading.

Ryanair Holdings Plc's print and broadcast adverts
last September made environmental claims that were poorly
substantiated and "must not appear again in their current
forms", the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled.

Under Chief Executive Michael O'Leary, the carrier has
tangled repeatedly with advertising authorities, often over
discount terms and conditions, and on Wednesday struck an
unabashed tone.

"Ryanair is delighted with its latest environmental
advertising campaign, which communicates a hugely important
message for our customers," spokeswoman Alejandra Ruiz said.

Under pressure from policymakers and "flight-shaming"
campaigners, airlines are scrambling to convince consumers they
are taking action to mitigate environmental impacts, even as
their traffic grows.

Low-cost carriers tend to emit less carbon dioxide per
passenger than legacy airlines because they operate younger
aircraft on point-to-point routes with fewer empty seats. But
they also account for a bigger share of total emissions growth.

Ryanair, which carried 152 million passengers in 2019 and is
targeting 200 million by mid-decade, based its green message on
emissions per passenger, per kilometre. Its 69 grammes of CO2
per passenger-km come in 23% below the average of Lufthansa
, British Airways parent IAG, Air France-KLM
and easyJet, its website says.

In absolute terms, Ryanair's 9.9 million tonnes of CO2
output placed it among Europe's top 10 emitters in 2018, a group
dominated by coal-fired power stations, according to EU data.

In radio and television adverts, the company "did not give
any information on the metric used" to underpin its
self-description as a "low-CO2 emissions airline", the ASA
found.

The print version did outline the calculation but failed to
acknowledge Ryanair's higher seating density as a contributor or
substantiate a claim to be Europe's "lowest-emissions airline",
the watchdog ruled, upholding complaints against all three ads.

"We told Ryanair to ensure that when making environmental
claims, they held adequate evidence to substantiate them and ...
that the basis of those claims were made clear," it said.

Transport & Environment, a European campaign group, said the
decision offered "a reminder that the aviation sector's climate
impact is soaring because of a decades-long tax holiday and
almost zero regulation of their pollution."

A spokeswoman for the environmental organisation added:
"Ryanair should stop greenwashing and start doing something to
tackle its sky-high emissions."

Ryanair said the same advertising message had been used in
10 European countries. "The message was approved in other
markets and we provided all the supporting data they required,"
Ruiz said.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Alistair Smout; Additional
reporting by Conor Humphries in Dublin; Writing by Laurence
Frost; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and John Stonestreet)