{"id":251863,"date":"2026-04-04T17:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251863\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T17:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:16:28","slug":"level-suspends-san-francisco-flights-over-engine-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251863\/","title":{"rendered":"LEVEL suspends San Francisco flights over engine shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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International Airlines Group<\/a> (IAG) subsidiary LEVEL<\/a> will be suspending flights between Barcelona<\/a> and San Francisco<\/a> over an engine shortage, according to Spanish media. The carrier is IAG\u2019s long-haul, low-cost subsidiary and uses a fleet of Airbus A330 aircraft transferred from Spanish flag carrier Iberia which is also a member of the group.<\/p>\n

Sources cited by La Vanguardia<\/a> indicate that far from being connected to the ongoing conflict in West Asia, the airline\u2019s Airbus A330 fleet is suffering from an engine shortage that has resulted in a lack of capacity for the summer season. Aerospace Global News has contacted the carrier for comment.<\/p>\n

\"LEVELPhoto: MKPhoto \/ stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Flights to San Francisco from its Barcelona hub only operate during the peak season. LEVEL will operate them this month at two or three-weekly frequencies, with the final flight on 26 April. The route will then be cut for the remainder of the season, according to information filed to aviation analytics firm Cirium<\/a>. It had otherwise pencilled in 4x weekly frequencies.<\/p>\n

Sources told La Vanguardia that the route suspension \u201cresponds to an adjustment with the the objective of guaranteeing a more stable operation,\u201d and highlighted that the industry is currently \u201cmarked by engine supply shortages.\u201d Instead, the carrier decided to prioritise its more established routes.<\/p>\n

The report also said that the carrier was expecting to receive an eighth aircraft this year, which did not arrive. As a result, it lacks the necessary capacity to operate its flights to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\"LEVELPhoto: Toni \/ stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

LEVEL specialises in flights from Barcelona to the Americas. It operates to several destinations in the United States and across South America. This winter, it became a fully-independent airline within the International Airlines Group<\/a>, escaping from the shadow of Madrid-based Iberia.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to identify the reasons behind the San Francisco suspension, though it does suggest that it might perform weaker than some of its other routes.<\/p>\n

Looking at data from the US Department of Transportation for last year, average load factors on the San Francisco sector were quite high, reaching 89%. At 91%, only New York-JFK performed better on this metric. This says very little about the economic performance of the routes though.<\/p>\n

Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, LEVEL\u2019s growth has been quite rapid. It currently counts a fleet of seven Airbus A330 aircraft and has been using them to grow its network and frequencies. In 2024, its year-on-year growth was at 25% and in 2025 this stood at 11%. In 2026, though, as the eighth aircraft has not arrived, its growth in terms of flights stands at 2% compared to last year.<\/p>\n

\"LEVELPhoto: Markus Mainka \/ stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

It did introduce a new route though. In December, it emerged that the carrier would be adding flights to Lima, Per\u00fa<\/a> three-times per week. This was Barcelona\u2019s largest unserved destination in South America. Flights begin in June 2026.<\/p>\n

Its most served destination is Buenos Aires, with year-round daily flights. This winter it also added an additional two weekly frequencies.<\/p>\n

Featured image: Santi Rodr\u00edguez \/ stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

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\n inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for our newsletter and get our latest content in your inbox. Subscribe International Airlines Group (IAG)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[111889,62888,111890,111891,32052,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-251863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-airbus-a330","9":"tag-barcelona","10":"tag-iag-group","11":"tag-international-airlines-group","12":"tag-level","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}