BA owner IAG said it will launch a new low-cost, long-haul airline with flights from Barcelona to the Americas, in response to rising budget competition on transatlantic routes. Long-established airlines like American Airlines Group and Delta are finding their formerly lucrative transatlantic routes tougher amid rising competition from budget newcomers like fast-expanding Norwegian Air Shuttle, WestJet and Wow Air. IAG's new airline, Level, will start in June with flights from Barcelona to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Buenos Aires and Punta Cana, it said Friday. Level will start flying with two new Airbus A330 aircraft and initially will be operated by Iberia's flight and cabin crew. <br/>
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Relatives of those killed when flight MH17 was downed over Ukraine in mid-2014, on Saturday planted the first trees in a Dutch memorial park not far from where the ill-fated plane departed. "Today is a very important day for all the next of kin. We are planting the first trees ... to create a monument for MH17," Evert van Zijtveld, chairman of the MH17 victims' foundation said. "We are planting the trees to ensure their memory will not be forgotten and to remind us that we still want justice for MH17," said Van Zijtveld, who lost a son, daughter and his parents-in-law. The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine on Jul 17, 2014 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur killing all 298 on board, most of them Dutch citizens. "The 298 trees will remind us of each life that was stolen on July 17 that year," said Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, who also planted a tree. The park, in the shape of a giant ribbon consisting of apple, ash and hawthorn trees among others, lies a few kilometres from Schiphol airport, from where MH17 took off. A Dutch-led criminal investigation into the attack concluded in September last year that a BUK missile, transported from Russia, was fired from a field in a part of war-torn Ukraine then controlled by pro-Russian rebels, and hit the plane. But it stopped short of saying who pulled the trigger.<br/>
Hong Kong is in danger of losing its role as an international aviation hub because of intense competition, the boss of Qantas Airways has warned. Alan Joyce, CE of Australia’s national airline, said Middle East airports and explosive growth in flights from mainland China to global destinations threatened to undermine dominant Asian airports, a view shared by analysts. Qantas’ Irish-born boss is the architect of non-stop 17-hour flights planned between Perth and London, the first direct service between the continent and Europe, which will see travellers benefit in bypassing Hong Kong or Singapore for faster trips. “The danger for a lot of the Asian hubs is that they were the premium hubs for a long time and what we are now seeing is the Middle Eastern hubs competing on the West and now the Chinese on the East and North,” Joyce said. “There are now so many hubs, so many carriers operating the same strategy and competing against each other, and that will be a battle that is great for the consumers, and I don’t see any end in sight.” Qantas has tipped non-stop Australia to Europe flights to Paris and Frankfurt as part of its future, a response – on top of partnering with Gulf carrier Emirates Airlines – to a need to carve out a new strategy on flying direct. <br/>