The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a total of 13 complaints from consumers about TV, radio and London Underground adverts in which Ryanair stated it was the top airline in Europe.

The consumers claimed these adverts were misleading because Ryanair had cancelled thousands of flights due to pilot rostering problems in September and October.

But Ryanair said that being “Europe’s number one airline” was a “statement of fact” as it was still carrying more passengers than any other airline, despite the flight cancellations, and so its claim was not misleading.

The ASA agreed with Ryanair and did not uphold the complaints because independent figures from airline organisation Iata showed Ryanair continued to carry more passengers than its European competitors, even when the impact of the cancellations was taken into account.

“Because the most recent available figures showed Ryanair had carried more passengers than any other European airline, we concluded that the claim ‘Europe’s number one airline’ was unlikely to mislead consumers,” said the ASA in its judgement.