Beond, the Dubai-headquartered Maldivian start-up that flies all-premium Airbus narrowbodies and bills itself as ‘the world’s first premium leisure airline’, has entered renewed talks with a variety of airports — including in the Caribbean — with an eye on expanding beyond its Malé hub using separate air operator certificates (AOCs), chairman and CEO Tero Taskila has revealed to Runway Girl Network.

A spectacular Indian Ocean island archipelago in South Asia, the Maldives is one of those ‘bucket list’ destinations on many people’s wish lists including honeymooners. Dependent on tourism, it was initially hit hard by Covid but rallied with remarkable speed and is now considered a case study in how to handle a pandemic. Its quick rebound was a deciding factor behind Beond’s decision to make Malé its first hub for premium leisure operations, according to Taskila, and Beond, styled as beOnd, serves it with five routes, linking the island nation to Europe and the Middle East.

“That said, we are rekindling those discussions that we had pre-Covid with other markets in the Indian Ocean, but also other destinations, islands like the Caribbean, etc, which hopefully will see a Beond AOC in the next, let’s say, 18 to 36 months,” he revealed to RGN during an in-depth interview.

There are “a few destinations in the Caribbean who are really keen to have us” as well destinations in the Indian Ocean “which are keen to have us as well” so a multi-AOC model will be pursued, he confirmed.

This model has of course been adopted by low-cost carriers such as easyJet and AirAsia, though Beond would be adding a premium leisure twist. The airline does not rely on connecting traffic so it’s not as demographically bound as other full-service carriers, said Taskila, adding:

So, we never designed the plan or the product to be specific to a certain destination. In that sense, we do see ourselves a little bit like a luxury hotel that we can have an operation in the Middle East but we can have operations in North America or in Asia. And we will provide the same product/service in those places and hopefully at one point in time we are able to connect the dots.

With beautifully luxurious Italian-style interiors and carefully curated dining experiences, Beond has made plenty of news headlines since its November 2023 launch of commercial passenger services from Malé to Munich, Zurich and Riyadh using an ex-easyJet A319 in an all-premium layout of 44 lie-flat seats. The seats are configured 2-2, perfect for couples, and based on Optimares’ Vivaldi platform.

Though Beond later downgraded Munich to seasonal service, it also now links the archipelagic state with Milan and Dubai, and boasts 300 employees. On flights to the Middle East, it attracts couples and families, said Taskila, whilst flights to Europe draw “mostly couples”.

Beond’s second aircraft, a leased A321, was recently retrofitted with 68 Optimares Vivaldi lie-flat seats by UK-based Aerospace Engineering Solutions (AES). On 12 September, AES announced the completion of an EASA-approved supplemental type certificate for the all-premium refit.

The A321 is currently purely supporting Beond’s charter operations, ferrying TV personalities and football teams to their destinations. “So those are the people who are asking to fly with us and those are flying with us every single week so that [A321] capacity is rented out for special purposes,” Taskila told RGN.

But Beond has a bold ambition for growing its fleet to 32 all-premium aircraft in the next five years, in sync with its expansion in Malé and potentially other markets. It will remain an all-Airbus A320 family operator, confirmed Taskila.

“So, we’re now looking to have six new aircraft coming into the fleet next year and then grow six to eight aircraft” in the third year of operation.

Beond is not currently in the market for brand new aircraft, though sourcing Airbus narrowbodies for lease is also “quite difficult at the moment”, the Beond CEO admitted, given industry’s well-documented supply constraints and OEM delays.

“[T]he leasing market is the right choice for us,” he explained, “because buying an aircraft is capital intensive and introducing our product is also capital intensive because every aircraft we’re carrying obviously we will basically take the cabin apart and then rebuild the cabin and that’s a multi-million [dollar] project all the time.”

Beond has raised $53 million and is now looking to raise an additional $25 million to $35 million in the next few months. Those funds will go towards securing the aircraft pipeline for the coming years.

Featured image credited to beOnd