New IAG Airline Level sells 52,000 tickets on Day One
The IAG group launched its new airline Level yesterday, offering low cost service to the US, Argentina, and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Service is set to launch on June 1st and it seems like so far it’s been quite the success.
IAG is the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, and Aer Lingus, and now happily adds Level to their roster. Flying a fleet of only 2 A330’s to start, they plan to add more in the coming months and years.
Seat Details
The planes will be flying a 2 class configuration with Economy and Premium Economy. The Econ seats are going to be a standard low cost seat (nothing special) and you’ll be able to add whatever you’d like to the package. You can pay for bags, seat selection, or a meal. When you’re onboard you can also buy drinks, a “comfort pack,” and Wi-Fi if you need it.
For Premium Economy, the majority of these will be included at no additional cost. The seats have around 37 inches of legroom (which ironically is more than the Alaska Airlines first class product…) and you’ll get larger TV screens and free food.
Here’s a breakdown of what comes included with each fare. Kudos for the airline for making it very transparent with no surprises.
Fares
Yesterday they launched a fantastic sale of only 99 euros or $149 one way between Barcelona and the USA. The sale is still going on, so if you’re interested, head to their website and get your tickets. In just the first day of “life” for the website, there were tens of thousands of people who took advantage of these sales. Check out this tweet from the official twitter handle, @FlywithLevelEN.
On our second day of “Life” Hello world! 🌍 Yesterday we hit record sales: 52,000 tickets sold. Wow!
— LEVEL_en (@flywithlevelEN) March 18, 2017
You’ll be able to accrue Avios (Iberia to start, possibly British Airways) for your flight as well, so this is a great opportunity to increase your Avios balance as well.
Let’s assume the lowest price of $149 per ticket. That’s over $7.7MM in one day, and it would be enough to fill 173 flights of their A330’s to capacity. NOT A BAD START for a new airline on day one!
Here’s to hoping the that Level takes off and is a great success. I’m all for competition in the long haul transcon market, as Norwegian tried to come in and get some of that space as well. It will inevitably lead to the mainline carriers reducing their fares as well, so grab some popcorn and here we go!
March 19, 2017
The numbers are impressive! With 20 flights per week, they´ve filled already 2 months of operations. But then, it´s not difficult to fill a plane with cheap fares! The difficulty relies on flying the routes profitably. I must say, they´ve been really transparent from day 1, with no hidden information almost everything clearly on their website (that table has all the information needed basically).
Also you will only earn Avios with Iberia Plus, not with British Airways Executive Club similarly to Vueling flights. Likewise, no elite points will be earned and any IbPlus status benefits won´t be recognised while flying Level (even though it seems that so far any Emerald ans Spphire OW cardholders are able to select seats for free,probably until IB IT fix the issue).
Seems like a good start!