More than seven years after it launched, the fastest-growing carrier within Europe’s International Airlines Group (IAG) portfolio of airlines has finally acquired its own Air Operators Certificate (AOC) and will start operating flights with its own airplanes, pilots and cabin crew.
Since 2017, Barcelona-based low-cost, long-haul carrier LEVEL has had to rely on sister airline Iberia to operate flights on its behalf because it did not possess its own AOC despite presenting itself as a separate airline to the general public.
One of the reasons behind the delay in setting up LEVEL with its own AOC could well be because doing so adds complexity to parent company IAG’s operations and would have been a bureaucratic nightmare to undo if LEVEL had proved to be a flop.
At the time, LEVEL was seen as IAG’s response to the rise of low-cost transatlantic competitor Norwegian, which had ambitious plans to set up bases across Europe.
In the end, Norwegian’s long-haul ambitions were dealt a fatal blow due to problems with the Rolls-Royce Trent engines on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, but IAG continued to build LEVEL’s presence in Barcelona.
Perhaps surprisingly, the airline is proving to be quite a hit in Spain, and IAG now plans to grow its fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft from six to eight by next year.
Earlier this month, LEVEL completed the process of acquiring its own Air Operator Certificate from Spain’s civil aviation regulator, operating with airline code of LL. Its callsign on the radiowaves will be ‘Dali,’ which is a nod to Salvador Dali and its home hub in Barcelona.
So far, two Airbus A330s painted in LEVEL livery have been transferred to the ownership of the LEVEL air operators certificate and will initially only be used on flights between Spain and South America.
Another three Airbus A330s are set to be transferred over shortly, but the last aircraft will, for the time being at least, remain in Iberia’s ownership.
One of the reasons that one aircraft will remain for Iberia is because LEVEL is still going through the process of gaining approval from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to operate flights between Spain and the United States under a reciprocal Open Skies agreement.
The airline also has to build up its employee base of pilots, and flight attendants, as well as complete other time-consuming organizational tasks as it fully separates itself from Iberia.
Until then, LEVEL plans to wet-lease its aircraft to Iberia so that LEVEL-branded flights are actually operated under Iberia’s air operating certificate.
“The proposed wet lease arrangement between Iberia and LEVEL is fully consistent with the U.S.-EU Agreement, which authorizes liberal cooperative marketing arrangements,” the airline says in its DOT application.
“Granting this application is in the public interest because it will provide substantial consumer benefits by seamlessly maintaining the current service options available to U.S. and European traveling public for transportation between the U.S. and Europe.”
Once LEVEL has completed its application process with the US government and completed other administrative tasks, the airline will transfer over the last Airbus A330 onto its own AOC and Iberia will then relinquish the rights to use the LEVEL brand.
From its Barcelona hub, LEVEL currently serves five destinations in North America, including Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.
