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Ryanair slammed for misleading customers with bikini ads that promised flights ...

As sunshine destinations go, Norway in late winter probably wouldn't be most travellers' idea of a warming winter getaway. 

Watchdogs have given budget airline Ryanair a firm rap on the knuckles for advertising ‘cheap flights to the sun’ that, with a little investigation, turned out to be to decidedly chilly destinations.

The banned ads, for flights starting at just £8, included a picture of a woman on a sandy beach, wearing a bikini, sunglasses and sipping a cocktail with the slogan: ‘Book to the sun now!’

But one of the destinations was Oslo, in Norway, where the average high temperature for February and March – the period of the offer – is 0c to 4c.

Others with an average of just 6c to 9c were Glasgow, Londonderry, Aarhus and Bilund, in Denmark, and Frankfurt, Hamburg and Dusseldorf, in Germany.

Ryanair was also rapped over another advertisement, which offered flights to Dublin for £27.99, over complaints that it was apparently impossible to book at the price quoted because of an additional £6 online check-in fee.

The airline was unable to ‘clarify adequately’ how the promotional fare could be achieved, the Advertising Standards Authority said.

The criticism came after Ryanair complained about the ‘We charge you less’ promotion statement by arch-rival easyJet, which was also slammed by the watchdog.

The easyJet offer, for business fares, sparked anger from its competitor who insisted its own fares were cheaper on a number of routes.

Ryanair's objection was upheld and its rival was ordered not to run the advertisement again in its current form.

However, Michael O'Leary's carrier ended up with the lion’s share of the watchdog’s fire.

‘We considered that the average consumer would infer from the claim "Book to the sun now" and the image of the woman sunbathing, in a bikini, with a cocktail, that the promotion included fares to destinations warm enough to sunbathe in swimwear during the promotional period,’ it added.

‘Because we understood this was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading.’

The ASA ruling is not the first time the watchdog has been called in to rule on a dispute between the low-cost carriers.

Last May, it was forced to intervene after easyJet ‘denigrated’ its rival by suggesting Ryanair did not fly passengers to the destinations they had booked.

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