BeOnd (B4, Malé) will launch in mid-November 2023 with an A319-100 flying the Munich - Malé, Zurich - Malé, and Riyadh - Malé city pairs.
Speaking to the media on September 5, CEO Tero Taskila said a 44-seat A319-100 would initially fly twice weekly from Malé to Riyadh from November 9, twice weekly from Munich from November 15, and twice weekly from Zurich from November 17. BeOnd will launch with the single aircraft but plans to induct an A321-200 over the upcoming Northern Hemisphere winter.
Taskila is confident that tickets, now on sale, will sell out quickly owing to limited capacity. "Luxury travel is the fastest growing travel segment in the world, and BeOnd is the world's first premium leisure airline," said the CEO. "We are focusing on leisure travel only."
BeOnd founder Max Nilov told ch-aviation that BeOnd's strategy centres on operating aircraft from a single family type, namely the A320 family. He hosed down previous talk of acquiring widebodies, including A330-900Ns. "Our strategy is to build around a single aircraft type, single cabin product. Basically, it's simplicity. So far, we don't have any plans to go with any other OEMs or any other aircraft segments."
Nilov believes he won't have any problems filling his AL! AIR-o narrowbodies on the medium-haul hop from Europe to the Maldives. He says there is a clear trend to flying longer segments with narrowbody aircraft. "It is important to understand that we are not building on onto traffic, we are not running a traditional hub and spoke system, we are not frequency driven. What's most important is that we have a catchment area that attracts enough people that want to have this level of affordable luxury."
Nilov doesn't discount the competition into Malé, saying operators like Turkish Airlines, Emirates, and Etihad Airways offer a formidable product, but he says they cannot compete with the private jet-like experience BeOnd says it will offer.
