LEVEL airline has today (May 1st) restarted direct flights between Barcelona to Boston, the US’s oldest city, as part of its Summer 2022 program.

The flights will act as the only non-stop connection for the two cities and will be operated on a thrice-weekly basis, running on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Fares for a round trip to Boston will start from as little as €289.

Thomas-Boon-A350, British Airways-4
A similar sign-on bonus is being offered for ramp agents and bus drivers at Heathrow Airport, where staffing shortages have been muddying the operations for British Airways over the last couple of months. Photo: Arran Rice | Simple Flying

LEVEL expands its US presence

The route will be the airline’s fourth to the US, which has made steadily grown in importance to LEVEL. This Summer, LEVEL will offer more than 11,000 weekly seats on its routes to the US, which is more than double what it offered in 2019, before the pandemic. From its Barcelona base, the airline currently offers a daily flight to Los Angeles and four weekly flights to both New York and San Francisco.

The restarting of flights to Boston comes less than a month after the airline resumed flights to San Francisco and first launched its Los Angeles route. Both routes are operated by an Airbus A330-200.

Lucía Adrover, LEVEL’s commercial director, said:

“The Boston route reaffirms our commitment and commitment to the United States, which has already become our most important international market and where we operate a greater number of routes. In addition, Boston is a city that condenses university talent and innovation, as well as a multitude of tourist attractions that make it an ideal destination to discover this summer”.

All travelers, vaccinated or unvaccinated, currently have to have an antigen test or a negative PCR test taken within the last 24 hours to enter the US. LEVEL has reached agreements with the medical companies Quirónprevención and Arquimea that allow the tests to be carried out at reduced prices in an attempt to ease any inconvenience which might dent demand for travel.

Thomas-Boon-Generic, Iberia
IAG has a significant presence in Spain, LEVEL, Vueling and Iberia are all based there. Photo: Arran Rice

Who is LEVEL?

The low-cost long-haul airline first took off in June 2017 and is part of the IAG group, alongside Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Iberia Express, and Vueling.

The airline only operates flights to or from its Barcelona base. The US is the airline’s primary market, accounting for 80% of its routes. However, the carrier does also fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The long-haul nature of LEVEL’s routes meant that the fledgling carrier was hit hard by the pandemic and travel restrictions.

In the final quarter of 2021, the airline only operated 10.8% of its 2019 passenger capacity, although that was up from the abysmal 4.3% of the second quarter. The impact of the US’s strict COVID-19 entry restrictions on the airline can be seen when comparing the same time period for fellow airline Vueling, which managed to operate 79.4% of its 2019 passenger capacity.

The continued relaxation of pandemic-related restrictions and rebound in travel demand will be welcome news for the airline as it recovers from COVID-19 and builds upon its pre-pandemic scale of operations.

What do you think about LEVEL and its close ties with the US? Let us know in the comments below.