Britain's biggest ski operator has attacked the BBC for “alarmist” reporting of the effect of global warming in the Alps last winter.

In a series of reports on climate change last January and February on BBC news bulletins, a picture of a gondola hanging empty over a green slope by St Anton in Switzerland was used as a “backdrop”, according to Crystal Ski. But the company says that this misled the public as there were subsequent snowfalls, which meant that the picture became an inaccurate representation of the ski conditions later on.

This contributed to a drop in sales, said Crystal, with disappointing figures in Austria and some other countries. The company says it is also still affecting early-season bookings this winter. Speaking at a Crystal Ski annual forecast this week, Gareth Crump, product and marketing director, said: “The picture of a gondola over green fields became the enduring image of the season – it suggested that there had not been any snow.

“It was inappropriate as it gave the impression that there was no skiing. Yes, it was the hottest January and February we ever had, but reports at the time gave the impression that the world as we knew it was about to come to an end.” He added: “Some of the reporting was alarmist and oversensationalised.”

The complaint comes in the week that Mark Thompson, the BBC’s Director-General, called a crisis meeting to discuss a shake-up of the corporation’s quality control following controversies involving the Queen and Blue Peter.

The BBC responded by saying that it could not comment unless exact dates of the reports were supplied. Crystal was unable to do this.

The initial BBC reports came after research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which found that the number of “naturally snow reliable areas” in Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland would fall from 609 currently to 500 if world temperatures rose by 1C.

This figure would fall further to 404 reliable areas if temperatures rose by 2C, and to 202 if they increased by 4C. The OECD also pointed out that recent warming in the Alps has been about three times the global average, with the years 1994, 2000, 2002 and 2003 the “warmest on record for 500 years”.

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