IAG to establish budget long-haul operation out of BCN [branded as Level]
 

IAG is to establish a budget longhaul operation out of Barcelona, according to Dow Jones News and Reuters.

The service will begin in June with two A330s, with an initial focus on transatlantic operations.

LAX, SFO, SCL, HAV and TYO are being considered as destinations.

See also this analysis from the Centre for Aviation.

The related CAPA article has also stated that the Vueling brand is unlikely to be used.

Two aircrafts sounds a bit sparse though, although IAG being IAG we should see the numbers ramp up like SQ eventually did to Scoot.

yet again competing against Norwegian!

Do we know the base yet?

As per the OP and the CAPA article, it's BCN.

Ugh... Vueling is bad enough for 1.5hrs - I can't imagine anything worse for 12 hours to TYO :eek:

As I mentioned in the thread title, the thread text and in my WhatsApp message to you, it's BCN. :p

I can easily see this become pan-European in time if it is operated as a separate brand.

Do I assume this will be all Y, or might there also be a [small] J cabin?

i think it's more likely to be a small W cabin.

Exactly my thought! There is no point in reheating the permanent argument on whether this is a good or bad thing, but there is definitely an element of consistency in the strategy, and bar free wifi (and the Norwegian onboard magazine, which I personally find has the most interesting articles in the industry and is much better than High Life and many others!) DY clearly looks like the main model being admired by the current managers.

I actually like DY and use them a lot as I think that they are good at what they do. However, I personally use BA for something different and find it unlikely that BA would take my personal DY travel away from the original, but that is of course personal.

Interesting that the article talks about IAG being reactive in this instance, I wonder if this is a genuine attempt at creating a new business or they are salting the ground for Norwegian.

Either way I can not imaging it working out well for BAEC.

I suspect IAG will be thinking long term overall. Some short term decisions will certainly be made to make Norwegian's life difficult. However with the likes of Jetstar, Scoot, AirAsia, Eurowings etc. springing up around the world I suspect IAG will want to hold their ground should anyone wish to make another stab at it in the future. It'd be like Go all over again if they eventually give way.

Seems that IB has some spare A330 capacity, as AY will be using IB planes for HEL-MIA-HEL in Janyary. AY might use IB wet lease even longer; "... and may require Finnair to extend the period of the Iberia wet lease beyond the month of January."

https://company.finnair.com/en/media...ews?id=2399097

This bird had 36J seats.

Hopefully the send AC over to run the show, and perhaps BA will get someone more sympathetic to premium.