Virgin Atlantic has seen an advert highlighting the first fully sustainable fuel-powered transatlantic flight banned in the UK.
Ruling the advert would mislead customers over the airline’s environmental credentials, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the radio feature on Wednesday.
“We considered most consumers were likely to be aware that aviation was a high carbon-emitting sector,” the advertising watchdog said in a statement.
“However, they were unlikely to be aware of the extent to which fuels described as sustainable aviation fuel still had negative environmental impacts.”
Virgin’s advert aired from late November and discussed that month’s Flight 100, which operated between London Heathrow and John F. Kennedy International powered solely by sustainable aviation fuel.
This was the first to make the transatlantic crossing powered purely by such fuel, which is synthetically created using the likes of waste and lead to lower emissions.
Virgin’s Flight 100 had seen a 64% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-derived fuel-powered flights.
However, the ASA noted the term “100% sustainable aviation fuel” could be misconstrued, adding that it still produced emissions and that industry rules only currently allowed a 50% mix of the propellant to be used.
“[The advert] had the effect of building the overall impression that Virgin Atlantic was committed to [...] reducing the environmental impact of aviation,” the ASA said
“We considered many listeners would be interested in seeking out airlines that were taking such action.”