Qualiflyer - Sabena sues Ryanair over adverts

RYANAIR'S aggressive entry into the Belgian airline market has landed it in the Brussels courts. An ad campaign by the Stansted-based no-frills carrier has been branded offensive and inaccurate by national carrier Sabena.


Earlier this spring Ryanair announced the launch of its first European hub, at Brussels Charleroi, with flights to the UK, Ireland, Italy and the South of France. In a Press notice Ryanair declared: 'Au revoir Sabena et l'arnaque' - Belgian slang for 'rip-offs'. Ryanair went further with the launch of services a fortnight ago with Belgian Press adverts using the backdrop of Brussels' urinating child Mannekin Pis statue and the statement: 'Pissed off with Sabena's high fares? Low fares have arrived in Belgium.' Swiss-controlled Sabena has reacted by filing a fast track legal action with Brussels Commercial Court demanding immediate withdrawal of the ads and damages of Bfr10m (£155,000) for any future ads which do not make fair comparisons of the two airlines' tariffs.


Sabena said Ryanair's ads compared its one-way economy class tickets with Sabena's one-way business class price - Sabena does not do one-way prices in economy.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/business_story.html?in_review_id=388699&in_review_text_id=335207

Obviously Sabena didn't follow BA's disaster in the courts in the UK where the court agreed that BA were in deed "greedy .......s", as Ryanair had claimed in their advertising

Will be interesting to see if the Belgian courts are even handed over this.

With Swissair suffering badly and the Belgian government blocked from any more Sabena handouts, O'Leary may be about to put Sabena out of it's misery.

A spokesman for Sabena said the ads give a 'distorted picture'. He added: "They use slogans which are not real comparisons and which are at the same time offensive."

In a separate incident the UK Advertising Standards Authority considered innuendos about oral sex in Ryanair advertisements likely to cause "serious or widespread offence" and asked Ryanair not to repeat the campaign.

Ryanair offered two return flights for GBP£69 (USD$105) in the regional press under the headlines "Blow Me! (These fares are hard to swallow!) and "Satisfaction Guaranteed!"

The ruling came after three members of the public complained that the adverts were "sexually suggestive and offensive".

Ryanair said the advertisements were published to coincide with Valentine's Day, which was a celebration of relationships, and were intended to be humorous within that context.
http://news.airwise.com/stories/2001/05/989350491.html