In its counterblast, Ryanair is claiming that the ASA has demonstrated a “repeated lack of independence, impartiality of fairness” regarding the airline.

The ASAhas made seven rulings against Ryanair in the past two years. These include the “greedy Gordon Brown” advert where the ASA ruled that the UN and Stern Report’s CO2 emissions figures were factually inaccurate and Ryanair’s Eurostar ad, where the ASA ruled that the two hour 11 minute train journey was not necessarily more expensive than a lower £15 fare.

They also include the ASA ruling on the “back to school” ad which depicted a fully clothed model in short skirt and with bare midriff as “offensive” and the ruling on the airline’s “Robbed by lastminute.com” ad where the ASA ruled a lastminute.com handling charge of up to 100 per cent a ticket was not a “rip off.”

The airline’s latest brush with the ASA is a ruling against a 2 million £10 seat sale ad. The airline said this was the “most unfair, biased and unlawful ruling of the lot” as the complainant “couldn’t provide” any evidence of the flight he was trying to book.

The airline accuses the ASA of no giving it insufficient time to respond to the ruling and not providing a definition of “sufficient availability” for the seat sale.

Ryanair spokesman Peter Sherrard said: “We are calling on the OFT to examine this catalogue of mal-administration, bias and incompetence by the ASA and require in future that the ASA rules on Ryanair’s adverts in an independent, impartial, fair and reasonable manner.”

The ASA has confirmed that it has sent the OFT all rulings regarding Ryanair from the past two years.

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