Jamie Fly Aviation

MIAMI —  International Airlines Group (IAG) has revealed its new long haul low-cost carrier service: LEVEL, to be based at Barcelona’s El Prat, from where it will operate four initial routes to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Punta Cana and Buenos Aires. LEVEL will become IAG’s fifth airline, together with Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia and Vueling. The first flight to Los Angeles will be on June 1, to San Francisco (Oakland) on June 2, Punta Cana on June 10 and Buenos Aires on June 17. “This is just the start. We’re really excited about the opportunities for expansion and we plan to bring LEVEL to other European destinations,” Willie Walsh, IAG chief executive said in a statement. IAG also revealed that the LEVEL fleet will be initially comprised of two Airbus A330-200s, to be crewed by Iberia. The airplanes will be arranged in a two-class configuration, with 21 seats in Premium Economy and 293 seats in Economy Class. LEVEL will start offering six fare optio...

In my last post I talked about the issue of age in relation to safety and the trend by the government to ban aircraft types involved in plane crashes from the country's aviation industry. Recently the House of Representatives in a session passed a resolution calling for the sack of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, Harold Demuren for professional negligence. They recommended the revocation of his professional license as well as criminal prosecution for criminal negligence. They called for the revocation of Dana Air's operating license as well as phasing the MD83 out of the Nigerian aviation industry due to the fact that the NCAA does not have a certified engineer type rated on the MD83. I was dazed when the National Assembly misled Nigerians to belief that the Nigerian aviation sector is weak, that NCAA allows unfit aircraft to fly as well as negligence caused the Dana plane to crash. The report on the Dana crash by the National Assembly is a distortion of fact m...

Like most previous air crashes in Nigeria, the crash of the Dana Air McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operating as flight 992 that killed 153 people on board the plane and several on ground has raised the controversial issue of age and safety of aircraft operating in Nigeria as many tried to rationalize the cause of the crash. It is happening even when the Accident Investigation Bureau is yet to conclude its investigation to the cause of the crash Dana Air MD-83. Photo Credit Airliners.net  The National Assembly also lent its voice to the discourse. The three day hearing on the inquiry to the crash also helped in fueling the controversies as regards the age of airplanes operating in Nigeria in relation to safety. In the hearing both houses shamefully displayed gross ignorance on the subject. During the discourse on the issue of age on the online blogs, newspaper articles and social networking sites, i cringed when i saw the way the commentators were displaying highest level of ignor...