Beond Airline. The New Start-Up Maldivian Airline

Beond Airline has recently launched a fleet of a single A319. However, by 2028 they plan to have over 32 aircraft in their fleet. The airline has opted to go for a full business-class layout which is a big risk with the potential to be high reward. Beond currently flies to Munich and Zurich with a refueling stop in Dubai also flying directly to Riyadh. Let's get into it.

The Cabin

The cabin is arranged in a 2-2 configuration which some might say isn't the best for a business class product, especially with airlines moving towards Herringbones on narrow-body aircraft. However, I might argue that the layout is perfect for the targeted audience. Think about it who's going to the Maldives that splurges on business class? Mainly couples, whether they are getting married, on a honeymoon or simply going on vacation. Or the other alternative would be families, who might enjoy sitting next to each other (I certainly would choose a different configuration if flying with my family😅). Another point to add is to look at their competitors, Lufthansa and Swiss. They also offer a 2-2-2 configuration with older seats.

The seats seem to be quite comfortable from reports as well as relatively spacious. The footwell isn't cramped under another seat but rather off to the side, which is an interesting design dynamic.

While the Beond product isn't the nicest in the sky it certainly gets the job done with lie-flat seats, decent food, and bedding for these relatively short trips. Now would I want to be stuck on this plane for 16 hours? Probably not but a short hop to Dubai and then Zurich would be more than comfortable.

Fares

So what do fares look like to fly Beond? They sit around slightly cheaper than competitors such as Edelweiss, Etihad, or Turkish. This is the roundtrip fare for Male-Zurich. It comes out to around 4400 USD while Edelweiss is 4600$.

There are three different categories for fares though. These are them listed.

As you can see the Opulence includes a driver along with extra baggage. Something to note is there is no free seat selection in the Delight category. While this has become normalized recently for business class I think it's absurd. After already spending thousands of dollars you have to pay more to choose a seat...

Conclusion

Beond Airline seems like a comfortable airline to get from Male to Europe. Compared to some of the airlines that operate it seems to fit right in there and I plan to hopefully try it out sometime next year!