Level

You know low-cost carriers from short-haul: tight seating, quick turnarounds, bags cost extra. Level transfers this principle to long-haul – with widebody jets from Barcelona to America. For spotters the airline is interesting for another reason: within a few years, three different companies flew under the name Level, and only one of them still exists. Here you learn how to recognize Level, place the fleet and assign photos correctly.

Level at a glance

Level is the long-haul low-cost airline of the International Airlines Group, the group behind British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and Aer Lingus. Its home is Barcelona-El Prat Airport. From there Level flies Airbus A330-200s to North and South America.

IAG presented the brand in March 2017. The goal was clear: not to leave the field to competitors like Norwegian, which was then growing with cheap transatlantic flights. On June 1, 2017 it began – with A330-200s and destinations like Los Angeles, Oakland, Buenos Aires and Punta Cana.

The special thing: at first Level was not an airline of its own, but a brand. Iberia did the flying, with Iberia crews and Iberia flight numbers. Only on December 3, 2024 did the company Fly Level receive its own air operator certificate and with it the status of an independent airline within the group. Since March 2025 Iberia has held 50.1 percent of Level. Why brand and operating company so often diverge is explained in the article AOC and operating permit.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code LL: appears in the flight number, on tickets and departure boards.
• ICAO code LVL: appears in the flight plan filed with air traffic control and on flight trackers.
• Callsign DALI: how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

Level got its own codes with the AOC at the end of 2024. Iberia’s IB flight numbers kept running for a while, though, until Level switched fully to its own code in 2025. So if you search older records or photo databases, you find many Level flights under Iberia designators. For the time before, the rule is: the aircraft wore Level colors, but Iberia operated the flight.

The callsign “DALI” is a little bonus for radio listeners. We have not found an official reason, but the reference to Salvador Dalí and Catalonia is obvious.

One brand, three operators

Between 2017 and 2020 the name Level stood for three companies. That is the most important point if you want to place photos from that time.

Operator	Country	Base	Aircraft	Period	Status
Iberia, from the end of 2024 Fly Level	Spain	Barcelona-El Prat	Airbus A330-200	since June 2017	active
OpenSkies	France	Paris Orly	Airbus A330-200	2018–2020	End announced in July 2020
Level Europe (formerly Anisec)	Austria	Vienna, from 2019 also Amsterdam	A320 and A321	2018–2020	insolvent in June 2020

OpenSkies was originally a small business-class airline of British Airways. From July 2018 it flew long-haul routes from Paris Orly under the Level brand, including to Montréal, the French Caribbean and Newark. The OpenSkies name disappeared from the market in September 2018, while the company behind it kept flying for Level. The COVID pandemic shut down operations in spring 2020, and in July 2020 IAG announced the end of OpenSkies. The three A330-200s moved to Iberia in early 2021.

Level Europe was a special case: an Austrian company that flew short-haul routes with the Airbus A320 and A321 under the Level brand. It went insolvent in June 2020. The whole story is in the entry on Level Europe.

Only the Barcelona business remained. In September 2020 Level resumed long-haul flights there with a reduced schedule.

The fleet: only Airbus A330-200s

Level relies on a single type: the Airbus A330-200. In 2025 the fleet comprised seven aircraft. The A330-200 is the shorter of the two classic A330 versions and, thanks to its long range, ideal for routes from Barcelona to South America or the US West Coast. The manufacturer is Airbus.

Type	Number	Cabin	Spotter note
Airbus A330-200	7 (as of 2025)	Economy and Premium Economy	Shorter than the A330-300, registrations with EC-
Airbus A330-900	Part of a 2025 IAG order	Entry into service at Level open	New generation with larger engines and curved wingtips

There are two classes on board. In Premium Economy you sit in a 2-3-2 row with more legroom, in Economy in the 2-4-2 layout typical of the A330. The seat count varies from aircraft to aircraft, because the aircraft come from different sources.

In May 2025 IAG ordered A330-900s from Airbus, among other aircraft. The firm orders are distributed among Level, Iberia and Aer Lingus. How many of them will ultimately fly in Level colors, the group has not broken down exactly. You can easily tell the A330-900 from today’s fleet: its engines are much larger, and the wingtips end in a curved sharklet.

A330 or A340? How to sort them correctly

Anyone photographing long-haul traffic in Barcelona sees many widebody jets with a similar silhouette. The A330 has a close relative, the four-engine A340. At Level it is simple, because the airline flies only twinjets. Still, it is worth knowing the features.

The guide Telling the A330 and A340 apart explains it in detail, with landing gear, variants and photo examples.

How to recognize Level

Level’s look is deliberately plain: a white fuselage with the “LEVEL” titles in capital letters. You will look in vain for the red and yellow Iberia elements, even though Iberia long provided the flight operations. That is exactly what makes Level unmistakable on the apron at El Prat, even when Iberia and Vueling aircraft stand right next to it.

On the ground, Level stands out mainly through its type. In Barcelona many airlines fly narrowbody jets, while widebodies are rarer. An A330 with Level titles is therefore one of the aircraft you can almost always assign with certainty there.

The route network

Level connects Barcelona with destinations across the Atlantic. In recent years the network included these routes, among others:

• North America: New York JFK, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco, some of them only seasonally
• South America: Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile
• Served earlier: including Oakland, Las Vegas, Montréal, Cancún and Punta Cana

The network changes from season to season. So take the list as orientation, not as a schedule. Connections in Europe arise mainly via Vueling, which has its largest hub in Barcelona. On top of that come codeshares, including with American Airlines. What lies behind such agreements is explained in the article Codeshare flights explained.

Level itself is not a member of an alliance, even though Iberia, British Airways and Aer Lingus belong to oneworld. That fits the budget model: Level sells individual routes at a low base fare, with bags and meals costing extra depending on the fare. How the principle works is covered in the article How low-cost carriers work.

Spotting Level in Barcelona

If you want to see Level for sure, there is no way around Barcelona. Every rotation begins and ends in El Prat. The flights to America usually depart during the day, and the return flights land in the early morning hours after the overnight flight across the Atlantic. For the typical times in European long-haul traffic, the overview When long-haul flights land and depart in Europe helps.

The Mirador at Barcelona Airport offers a good start. Which other spots there are and how the runways are used is explained in the spotting guide for Barcelona. In Barcelona it is especially worthwhile to be there in the morning: that is when the returning flights from America arrive, and you often get several widebody jets in quick succession.

On the other side of the Atlantic you meet Level at large airports like New York JFK, where the spot at the TWA Hotel offers a view of the apron, or in Los Angeles, for example from Imperial Hill. There, however, Level is one of many airlines, and a single flight a day is easily missed.

Level within the IAG group

Within IAG every brand has a clear role. British Airways and Iberia are the big network airlines, Aer Lingus connects Ireland with North America, Vueling and Iberia Express cover short-haul. Level rounds out the portfolio with cheap long-haul from Barcelona – an airport where the group’s network airlines offer hardly any long-haul flights.

That Level got its own AOC in 2024 and moved to majority Iberia ownership in 2025 shows how close the connection remains. For you this means: technology, maintenance and fleet planning are closely tied to Iberia. Individual A330s can move between the group airlines, as happened in early 2021 with the former OpenSkies aircraft. A look at an aircraft’s registration history often reveals whom it has flown for before. How to read registrations is explained in Understanding aircraft registrations.

Common mix-ups

• Equating Level with Level Europe – the Vienna company flew A320s and A321s and has been history since 2020.
• Taking every Level A330 for the Spanish Level – in Paris Orly, OpenSkies flew under the same brand until 2020.
• Taking Iberia flight numbers for Iberia flights – until 2025 many Level flights ran under IB codes.
• Taking LL for a country code – IATA codes are pure airline designators.
• Taking Level for a oneworld member – only the group sisters belong to the alliance.
• Confusing the A330-200 and A330-300 – the -300 is much longer, Level flies only the shorter -200.

Conclusion

Level is a small but interesting part of IAG: seven A330-200s, a base in Barcelona and a network to North and South America. What makes the airline exciting is its history. Iberia, OpenSkies and Level Europe all flew under the same name, and only since the end of 2024 has Level been backed by an airline of its own with its own AOC. If you consider type, location, registration and date together, you can place every Level photo with confidence.