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LEVEL heats up the competition in Vienna

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The International Airlines Group (IAG) will establish a new Austrian subsidiary, LEVEL, as of July 17, 2018.

The low-cost airline is the latest addition to several low-cost carriers (LCCs) that have chosen Vienna as their strategic base. In addition to Easyjet-Europe - which has no base in Vienna but has 130 aircraft registered in Austria - Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings-Europe, Laudamotion and Wizz Air have chosen Vienna as their base.

LEVEL - which sold 50,000 tickets for just one euro cent on July 2 (booking date) for the summer season - will receive an Austrian operating license and station four 210-seat Airbus A321 aircraft in Vienna, serving up to 14 European destinations.

On July 17, there will be flights to Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and London Gatwick (Great Britain). In the following four weeks, flights will be introduced from Vienna Terminal 1 to Barcelona, Malaga, Ibiza, Alicante, Valencia, Bilbao (Spain), Paris Charles de Gaulle (France), Milan Malpensa, Venice, Olbia (Italy), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Larnaca (Cyprus).

Willie Walsh, CEO of IAG, said: "We are launching this new airline to offer Austrian consumers more flight options across Europe. The flights will be marketed as LEVEL to build on the great success of our new long-haul low-cost operation." LEVEL's Airbus A321s are the first medium-haul aircraft in its fleet. LEVEL only operates A330-200s on long-haul routes from Barcelona and Paris Orly.

Walsh said the new airline will initially create around 200 new jobs in Vienna.

Level can be seen as a reaction from IAG when an agreed deal to buy NIKI fell through. IAG had planned to buy NIKI assets through Vueling in January this year. Niki Lauda - ex-Formula 1 champion and founder of Austrian-based airberlin subsidiary NIKI - took over NIKI again and is now marketing it as "Laudamotion".

IAG CEO Willie Walsh told Connoisseur Circle in an interview on January 19, 2018 that when IAG analyzed the Austrian market for the planned NIKI transaction, the company realized the enormous potential in Austria. Walsh is also planning long-haul flights with LEVEL from Vienna.