IAG-owned carrier LEVEL secures its own AOC and uses its own two-letter code from 2025

LEVEL, the low-cost, long-haul brand of International Airlines Group (IAG), has secured its own Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and will begin flights as a separate legal entity in 2025, using its own two-letter flight prefix code. The airline has also announced fleet expansion plans, with a seventh Airbus A330-200 to be added to its fleet “within a few weeks”.

The process of securing a separate AOC for LEVEL began back in 2023, when IAG wanted to run the airline as a separate entity with its own accounting, operational and legal processes. LEVEL was founded in 2017 and was previously a subsidiary of Iberia, Spain’s national airline and, alongside British Airways, a key member of IAG. Other airlines in the group include Irish airline Aer Lingus and low-cost airline Vueling.

According to LEVEL CEO Rafael Jiménez Hoyos, who took over as head of the Spanish airline in October 2024, LEVEL securing its own AOC offers the airline “greater flexibility to achieve its strategic objectives.”

“This milestone marks the beginning of a new phase in which we will continue to work with the same commitment to consolidate LEVEL as an efficient, innovative and customer-oriented airline that connects Barcelona to the world directly and without stopovers,” added Jiménez Hoyos.