a jet plane on a runway

New Premium Leisure Airline – Beond Airlines Takes Flight

Sam Chui·
A319A321neoAviation News
  • The new airline unveiled its first aircraft in the unique Beond livery and perfectly appointed cabin with events in Malé and Dubai
  • Passenger flights begin in November from Munich, Zurich and Riyadh
  • New routes were announced to Milan and Dubai

Beond — a new premium leisure airline — unveiled its sophisticated and unique aircraft livery today. With events in Malé, Maldives attended by dignitaries, investors, supporters and employees, and at a global media event broadcast online and in-person in Dubai, the airline showcased its first aircraft, an Airbus A319 seating 44 passengers in a luxurious all lie-flat configuration.

a seat in a plane
a bed in an airplane

“Welcome to Beond. Our aim is simple: to fly our customers to the most unique and unspoiled destinations where they can release their inner explorer on the most memorable vacation of their lives,”

Tero Taskila, CEO and founder, Beond

“Today is but the beginning of our vision for our customers, embodied by this beautiful aircraft — inside and out. We could not be more pleased to showcase it in Maldives, our home,d and Dubai. We wish especially to thank the government of Maldives and our supporters there, the Maldives Civil Aviation Authority, and SIMDI Group — each of whom believed in our vision for a new airline in Maldives. Our team will do its best to bring tourists to this beautiful nation.”

Beond’s inaugural flights are scheduled for November 2023, with the Riyadh inaugural departing November 9, the Munich inaugural departing November 15, and the Zurich inaugural departing November 17.

Between today and the scheduled service launch, early bird customers have chartered the aircraft to experience the Maldives. In addition, the airline announced new routes from Dubai and Milan, beginning in late March 2024.

a tablet on a stand in a plane

Beond will fly a fleet of state-of-the-art Airbus A320-family aircraft in a unique luxury, lay-flat configuration, bringing passengers to Maldives from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia- Pacific. This first Beond aircraft will be on display at the Dubai Air Show in mid-November.

Additional Airbus aircraft will join the Beond fleet in late 2023 and early 2024.

a black and orange information page
a group of women in uniform standing in front of a plane
the tail of an airplane

Sam Chui

Sam Chui is one of the world's most established aviation and travel blogger, content creator and published author. He enjoys anything related to aviation and travel. His fascination with airplanes stemmed from visiting Kai Tak airport as a teenager. He has spent some of the happiest times of his life in the air.

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4 Responses

  1. Sorry I was looking at the photo of the Cabin Crew in their uniform is CHEAP LOOKING ! the seams on the uniform are PUCKERED ! stiched badly and the summer skirt is the same . For such a high class airline there uniform looks cheap and badly made ???

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  2. Why not critically review the airline? It claimed to connect markets in Europe not connected nonstop. It is flying to Riyadh first. So not connecting Europe nonstop yet. It offers an inferior business class product to all major European and gulf airlines. Many of which already offer nonstop flights. And it has too few aircraft and crew to have the operational flexibility needed. And no buying power to get competitive pricing on its aircraft costs. These larger airlines have significantly lower unit costs, established infrastructure, powerful loyalty programmes and widespread partnerships. All which are important to premium customers. The only way to attract customers from the majors will be to do so with either a superior product, or cheaper pricing. Since the product cannot possibly be superior being a narrow body, no single aisle access, and slower trip times as well as no scale possible in the next decade, the only option is to compete on price – which it cannot do since the per seat mile cost is much higher than operating a Widebody aircraft. Since it can only compete on price, it is a flawed business plan with no chance of profitability. In the meantime with a fuel stop in Riyadh the travel time to Europe is broken up with a mod route stop, requiring passengers to wake up, sit and endure a landing, refueling and restart. A process which, from descent to climb out will take at least two hours. Which premium passenger wants to disrupt sleep for that? If they would, wouldn’t they rather fly Emirates or Qatar and have a much better connecting experience and even stopover options? The investors will never recover their money.

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