Flying to Brussels on Ryanair 'isn't cheaper or faster than Eurostar'

The budget airline's advert compared its one-hour-10-minute flight to the two hours and 11 minute train trip.

But travelling from London and Brussels city centres to the two airports used by Ryanair would add a total of one hour and 45 minutes to the total journey time, the Advertising Standards Authority said.

London Stansted airport is around 25 miles (40km) out of London while Charleroi is around 28.5 miles (46km) out of Brussels, the watchdog found.

Ryanair's national press advert breached advertising rules relating to substantiation, truthfulness and comparisons with identified competitors.

The ASA also upheld a complaint from Eurostar about Ryanair claiming its London to Brussels flights were "cheaper" than the train link.

"Ryanair one way - from £15 - taxes and charges included. Eurostar one way - from £27 - taxes and charges included", its advert said.

But transfer costs from both airports to London and Brussels city centres would cost a minimum £8 each.

"We considered that many readers would not be aware of the locations of the airports and the additional costs incurred," the ASA said.

For this reason Ryanair's "cheaper" claim was "likely to mislead", the watchdog ruled.

The airline's advert also claimed its London to Brussels flights were "more punctual" with 89 per cent of flights on time compared to 83 per cent of Eurostar trips.

But the airline had taken Eurostar's punctuality figure from a BBC online article which was more than two years old.

Eurostar Group challenged the claim, saying its own figures showed punctuality rates of 91.5 per cent on its London-Brussels and London-Paris routes.

The ASA also found that claim in breach of advertising rules.

It told Ryanair to remove the claims "Brussels faster and cheaper" and "more punctual" from similar adverts.

Responding to the investigation, Ryanair argued that its advert made clear its flights went from London Stansted airport.

It said the time taken to get to the airport or train station was "irrelevant" because its advert only compared flight times to Eurostar train times.

Ryanair said neither its fare nor Eurostar's took account of onward travel costs.

It said travellers would have to pay to get to Eurostar train stations, just as they would have to pay to get to airports used by Ryanair.

The airline said its punctuality figures had been sourced from a BBC website article, dated April 2005.

A Ryanair spokesman said: "Passengers booking Ryanair today to travel from London to Brussels enjoy fares of just £10 one way including taxes. Eurostar is charging 15 times more (£154 one way).

"No amount of stupid rulings from the ASA quango will hide the fact that 50 million passengers will save over £5 billion by flying with Ryanair this year. Only the very rich or the very slow waste their time and money on Eurostar."