British Airways budget airline will sell transatlantic flights to LA from £86

British Airways is to get a low-cost sister airline offering transatlantic flights from just £86.

Level, a new airline from International Airlines Group (IAG) which owns BA, will begin offering flights from Barcelona this summer.

There are plans to expand to other European cities in a bid to compete with low-cost long-haul carriers such as Norwegian.

Flights will take off from Barcelona and head to one of four destinations across the Atlantic including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic with prices starting from £86.

The airline will use two new Airbus A330s operated by crew from Iberia, creating 250 new jobs.

Each flight will have 21 “premium economy seats” which come with free checked in luggage, meals and films and 293 economy seats with a range of paid extras.

The IAG group currently owns British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling.

He said it was possible that Level would start to offer flights from British airports including Gatwick.

Flights will go to Los Angeles and Punta Cana twice every week and to San Francisco and Buenos Aires three times.

The company’s chief executive Willie Wash said that Barcelona had been chosen because it was Vueling’s home airport and would allow customers to connect to Level flights from Vueling’s short-haul network.

Mr Walsh said: “LEVEL is an exciting new IAG airline brand which will bring a stylish and modern approach to flying at prices that are even more affordable. It will benefit from having the strength of one of the world's largest airline groups behind it.”

He added: “This is just the start. We're really excited about the opportunities for expansion and we plan to bring LEVEL to other European destinations".