Beond Promises All Lie-flat Seat Flights to the Maldives

Beond, pronounced “beyond”, a new ‘private jet’-style airline, plans to provide a “private jet” experience to passengers travelling to and from the Maldives by using narrow-body aircraft and offering an all-premium cabin with lie-flat seats which share components with Ferrari cars.

Thanks to this newly launched airline, jointly owned by UAE-based firm Arabesque and Maldivian hospitality company SIMDI, flying to the Maldives will become more luxurious than you could have ever imagined. The scheduled flights are set to begin in November.

This week, Beond will be showing off its aircraft with lie-flat seats for every Passenger, at a series of events. So all passengers on board the narrow-body planes will be able to recline until they’re almost horizontal.

Sascha Feuerherd, the chief commercial officer of Beond, said, “We want to do something completely new. We deliberately chose to go for a luxury destination, which is a little paradise by itself, where people travel to relax and spend quality time. We want to ensure that they can travel there also in comfort, so that they are arriving fully relaxed.”

The operator self-labelled as “the world’s first premium leisure airline”, the Malé-based airline doesn’t prefer the term business class as its service is aimed at holidaying travellers visiting Maldives, which saw 1.6 million visitors in 2022 where tourism is the single largest industry.

Tero Taskila, founder and chief executive of Beond, previous boss of Estonian Air, and said while the airline is offering a “niche product” it is “targeting people who are seeking luxury experiences in travel.”

Taskila added, “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.”

Initially, there will only be three routes connecting with Male. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will be launching on 9 November, flights to and from Munich, Germany, will start on 15 November, and a route between Zurich, Switzerland, and Male will launch flights on 17 November.

The plane, an Airbus A319, has been configured to fit just 44 passengers – far fewer than the maximum capacity of 156. Additional planes, with lie-flat seating and similar capacity, are expected to join the fleet in late 2023 and early 2024.

The chief executive of Beond wants to grow its routes to 60 destinations in the next five years. New routes from Dubai and Milan, northern Italy, will begin in late March 2024, Beond has announced.

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