The Korneuburg regional court ordered the final closure of Level Europe GmbH. Most recently, only the “Nominated Persons” division (postholder) was active. All other parts have already been abandoned in the last few months by decision of the bankruptcy court.

The vast majority of the level staff were the flight personnel, i.e. pilots and flight attendants. These were terminated shortly after the bankruptcy filing by the trustee. In the area of ​​administration, a few employees were still employed, but on October 1, 2020, the Korneuburg Regional Court ordered this area to be closed as well. This leaves only the nominated persons who are absolutely necessary to obtain the operating license and the AOC. This ended on December 22nd, 2020, because on this day the bankruptcy court ordered the final closure of Level Europe GmbH.

This should mean that at least small hopes of a takeover by an investor have been dashed. The time of bankruptcy was extremely unfavorable for a sale, because due to the general situation around the corona pandemic, aviation and tourism are currently considered high-risk investments. Furthermore, numerous airlines across Europe are available extremely inexpensively on request, because the financial situation is tense almost everywhere.

Level Europe took off on the Vienna-London Gatwick route for the first time on July 17, 2018. The Airbus A321 with the registration OE-LCN was used. The machine was almost completely booked out, but in the following months the company, which at that time was still operating under the name Anisec Luftfahrt GmbH, had to struggle with sales and capacity problems. The fierce competition, among others Lauda, ​​Wizzair and Austrian Airlines, prevented Level Europe from gaining any significant market share on the Vienna market. The route network was successively reduced and the opening of the base in Amsterdam also fell far short of expectations.

In spring 2020, Level Europe was one of three Austrian airlines that flew many stranded vacationers home. The flight attendants and pilots went to great lengths to give the returnees a particularly warm welcome. At the time, no one thought that it would be the last flight in level uniform, because only a few weeks later the company had to file for bankruptcy.

Level Europe did not receive any state aid

While the competitor Austrian Airlines has received state aid time and again in the company's long history, Level Europe did not receive a cent. For this reason, the employees also moved to the Federal Chancellery to put pressure on. The efforts were not crowned with success, however, because there was not a cent from the state, which helped Austrian Airlines with a three-digit million sum.

However, the role of the International Airlines Group as the parent company is also a bit questionable, because the billion-dollar group of companies used the corona pandemic to get rid of their less successful subsidiaries Level Europe and OpenSkies (Level France). It was only in July 2018 that the then IAG boss Willie Walsh emphasized how important the company's activities in Vienna are, but after a few weeks he had to face fierce criticism at investor conferences. As for the level in Paris-Orly, too. In other words: If the IAG had cared as much about Vienna and Level as Walsh said in the summer of 2018, the daughter would certainly not have been “adopted” in the direction of bankruptcy. Corona and the non-received state aid were obviously not exactly inconvenient circumstances to say “Good bye” to the Vienna location. Incidentally, Level had a problem that many other companies also had: the aid possible through Cofag is paid out in the form of loans granted by banks. The state grants guarantees through Cofag, but if the Basel criteria cannot be met, the banks say no. Without fresh money in the cash register there is no credit and this could only come from the state or the owners. But if the government is of the opinion that a lot of money has already been spent on the AUA and the IAG couples a possible grant to support from the state, which however does not want to, in the end the bankruptcy comes out.

It is almost ridiculous that the IAG and the Austrian government negotiated a “Plan B” just a few days before the AUA aid was approved. This would have provided the republic to join Level Europe. With this airline, which never had a collective agreement, a kind of “new AUA” would have been doctored with the partner IAG. The outdated Austrian Airlines fleet would not have been taken over, but the British-Spanish partner could have transferred enough “inventory” to Vienna at short notice. But that never happened.

Level Europe was a short-lived airline that was the first Austrian victim of the corona pandemic. On December 22nd, 2020, the Korneuburg Regional Court sealed the final decision. On January 20, 2021, the creditors will hold a subsequent audit meeting and then it is to be expected that the trustee will initiate the realization of the last property.