LEVEL Europe – the IAG Vienna short-haul airline has filed for bankruptcy, with the company ceasing trading today (18th June). The short-haul carrier based out Amsterdam and Vienna had been grounded in March 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The notice on their site is blunt – to put it nicely.
LEVEL Europe had six Airbus A320 family aircraft in its fleet.
This unit was set up as a Vueling subsidiary (itself a subsidiary of IAG) – initially to take over Niki. Instead of taking over Niki, the airline was established by itself with it based in Vienna, to take on what is now Lauda, Austrian and of course, Eurowings.
The long haul LEVEL unit (which uses the Iberia certificate in Spain and OpenSkies certificate in France) will remain active as a separate company.
IAG also owns Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling as well as its cargo arm, IAG Cargo and its loyalty arm – Avios.
Letting go of Subsidiaries
If LATAM Argentina and LEVEL Europe have proved something this week, airline groups are still in a scramble to save as much liquid capital as they can.
Letting go of the worst-performing units seems to be a strategy at the moment – and maybe an open warning to those who are trying to challenge an airlines train of thought as they ponder how to cut costs.
And I doubt this will be the end of this sadly.
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