LEVEL (Barcelona El Prat) has announced it would restart scheduled flights on September 11, 2020, through the reactivation of its Barcelona El Prat-New York JFK route.

The Spanish virtual carrier, a subsidiary of IAG International Airlines Group, will initially operate the route 1x weekly, increasing to 2x weekly from September 30 and to 3x weekly from October 7, 2020. Flights will be operated with an A330-200 chartered from Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas).

The relaunch of the route was announced by the Anglo-Spanish holding's cargo arm, IAG Cargo, hinting at the importance of freight on the transatlantic market. However, tickets are available in open sales to passengers.

"We at LEVEL are pleased to announce that we are restarting our operations for passengers and cargo from Barcelona, contributing to IAG Cargo's extensive freight traffic network made possible thanks to the group’s synergies. This is good news not only for the sector but also for the long-haul connectivity of the city of Barcelona," LEVEL's Chief Commercial Officer Lucía Adrover said.

The US continues to ban the entry of passengers from Spain, except for citizens and residents of the US, as well as passengers with select types of work visas. In turn, Spain also does not allow US citizens to enter the country, although exceptions apply, as well.

LEVEL suspended all scheduled operations in late March 2020. The carrier has been largely dormant since then as it did not operate repatriation or cargo charters, except for individual flights. LEVEL's chartered fleet encompassed four A330-200s operated by Iberia out of Barcelona and three units of the type operated by OpenSkies (BOS, Paris Orly) out of Paris Orly. Despite earlier reports that IAG was considering the closure of OpenSkies, LEVEL is again selling flights from Orly to New York Newark and Montréal Trudeau from October 1, to Pointe à Pitre from October 2, and to Fort de France from October 15.

All seven Airbus widebodies operated by LEVEL are currently in storage - Iberia's units, two each, at Barcelona and Ciudad Real airports, and OpenSkies' aircraft at Nîmes Garons (two) and Orly (one).

IAG's short-haul low-cost carrier LEVEL Europe (Vienna) ended operations in June 2020 and filed for insolvency. The Austrian airline, despite using the same branding, operated independently of its long-haul sister carrier.