In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Lucia Adrover, Commercial Director at LEVEL.
What new features is LEVEL presenting at Fitur 2025?
We are very happy. Fitur is the starting shot of the year, full of new things and challenges. The first thing we are going to launch this year is going to be our new air operator certificate. We have already established ourselves as an airline and we have our own AOC, operating as LEVEL, since until now, it had been a brand operated by Iberia. We are going to have our own operations team, which is very important and necessary to be able to achieve our growth objectives and challenges.
We will also be launching new aircraft in 2025. In December we received our seventh aircraft, which has already joined our fleet, so we will be able to continue with our growth plans. And in 2025 we will bring more than 300,000 seats to the Latin American market, which will represent an 18% growth compared to 2024. This will translate into new frequencies, with a better product and greater density. All of this is always supported by LEVEL's vocation to ensure that each person has an experience in their own way, at affordable prices.
Since you speak of experience, it is good to remember that the feeling is becoming consolidated that flying low cost does not mean flying badly, since one can choose according to their budget.
Yes, since our growth we have never positioned ourselves as a low-cost airline, but rather as a new generation airline, which puts efficiency and technology at the service of the customer experience, because what better than a person being able to fly between Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires with free Wi-Fi for messaging. We couldn't really call this low cost, it's putting technology at the service of efficiency. It's also about a person being able to reserve and configure their menu up to 12 hours before the plane's departure, with delicious dishes that go far beyond chicken or pasta.
I think the market is understanding that with Level, in the end, passengers will be able to travel their way, with many amenities in the Economy cabin, which even offers free messaging and has plugs to charge devices, and also a Premium Economy cabin, which has greater comfort and space between seats.
They added a new plane, what is this expansion about?
Level flies with an Airbus fleet, Airbus 330-200, so we have added a seventh aircraft at the end of the year, and it is completing and continuing our expansion plan. The group has even announced that by 2026 we will have an eighth unit. These are long-haul aircraft, White Bodies, with two aisles, with Economy and Premium Economy cabins, and also with the aim of bringing Barcelona closer and better to such interesting and beloved destinations as Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile.
How has 2024 been in commercial terms?
From a commercial point of view, 2024 has been exciting, as we have been able to fulfil dreams, such as launching a new route such as Barcelona-Miami, which was very well received. We have brought to market an increase in seat capacity of 18%, which has also been translated into an improvement in the density of our product, as we have increased frequencies. And in addition, in 2024 we have done what we do best, ensuring that each person feels that they are enjoying their experience based on their needs. Almost two thirds of our passengers personalise their food on our travel preparation portal. This excites us a lot, because we see that there is interest in the service we are providing.
2024 has been the year in which the entire company has been working side by side to obtain our air operator certificate, our AOC, which ultimately also represents a turning point, the moment in which we have gone from being a commercial brand to being an operating airline.
And for this year, how do you imagine it can end in operational and commercial terms?
We are going to bring a significant increase in capacity to the market. We hope that 2025 will be a continuation of 2024 in terms of results, but that we can also close the year as an airline that already operates its own flights to all its destinations, that has its own operations and crew team, and that looks to the future thinking about how it can continue contributing to its reason for being, which is to connect Barcelona with the world.