LEVEL plans a long-haul operation from Paris-Orly

It seems IAG’s “Low Cost” long haul carrier Level is spreading its wings this morning, with the announcement that the airline will be launching routes from Paris Orly

LEVEL is will operate from Paris, with routes to:

• Montreal commences 2nd July 2018 operates three times per week
• Guadeloupe commences 3rd July 2018 operates four times per week
• Martinique commences 3rd September operates three times per week
• Newark for New York commences 4th September 2018 operates four times per week

Lead in prices start at €99, with premium economy starting at €429 one way.

The airline will base two of its Airbus A330-200 aircraft at Paris Orly. These are configured with 293 economy and 21 premium economy seats.

Being a low-cost airline, there’s a variety of fares with a selection of bundles on sale including luggage, meals, seat selection in economy. In premium economy, these will be included.

Onboard WiFi is also provisioned on board LEVEL services, and starts at €8.99 in-flight.

Passengers can connect with Vueling for short-haul connections across Europe from Vueling’s Paris Orly hub.

Meanwhile, British Airways sub-brand – OpenSkies – will be replaced in 2018. The staff operating OpenSkies (which currently use Boeing 757s between Paris and New York) will be redeployed to LEVEL to operate their flights.

OpenSkies Boeing 757-200, Image – Economy Class and Beyond

OpenSkies itself will cease operation at the end of Summer 2018 – which is a shame to this writer – least of all, it offered some of the best British Airways service I’ve encountered.

Willie Walsh, IAG’s chief executive on the launch states

“LEVEL’s Barcelona operation has been an incredible success. Customers love it and LEVEL will be profitable this year. Barcelona was always a first step and today we’re delighted to launch flights from our second European city with four exciting new routes from Paris.

“Like Barcelona, Orly is a Vueling hub which means that customers will be able to fly there from other parts of Europe to connect onto LEVEL. We will also benefit from the local experience and knowledge of the OpenSkies team”.

The tickets are on sale on flylevel.com for those who want to fly with them

Whilst OpenSkies itself is being consigned to history, the work that the airline did to take advantage of the Open Skies treaty between Europe and the USA cannot be underestimated – and have allowed airlines like Norwegian to open a bases and subsidiary in Europe to offer low-cost options across the atlantic and beyond.

Interestingly, OpenSkies survived longer than SilverJet, MaxJet, L’Avion (which BA folded into OpenSkies) – a minor  record in itself.

Whilst the battle for premium traffic may be lost – switching to the popular low-cost model appears to be working for airlines…. for now.

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