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A trip to the Maldives — the 1,000-island archipelago off India’s west coast that ranks among the world’s most glamorous beach destinations — is always a special occasion. Now a new airline wants to increase this even further.
Beyond – pronounced “beyond” – aims to create a “private jet” experience, using narrow-body aircraft (instead of the wide-body aircraft often used on routes to the Maldives) and offering a premium cabin with reclining seats that share components with Ferrari vehicles.
“We want to do something completely new,” Sascha Feuerherd, Beyond’s chief commercial officer, told CNN. “We consciously chose a luxury destination that is a little piece of paradise in itself, where people travel to relax and have a good time. We want to make sure they can also travel there comfortably, so they arrive completely relaxed.”
Beond is based in Malé and is scheduled to begin operations in autumn 2023. The company will initially operate a small fleet of Airbus A319 aircraft before switching to the larger Airbus A321. Dubai and Delhi are the first two confirmed destinations.
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Beond will offer reclining seats on its flights to the Maldives.
Currently, around three dozen airlines offer flights to Velana International Airport, the Maldives’ main airport near the capital island of Malé. To compete with them, Beond plans to carefully select its destinations and fly customers directly to the island, rather than flying through a hub connection like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines do.
“We aim for airports with large catchment areas that have a certain level of prosperity, and then fly people out directly,” says Feuerherd. In Germany, for example, Beond would not target Frankfurt – a commercial center with a lot of competition. Instead, they would opt for Munich, where there is less competition and a higher proportion of leisure travelers.
In other markets like Asia, Beond plans to compete directly with other airlines and instead differentiate itself with a higher quality service. “The Maldives is one of those markets that can fill an airplane, even a mostly economy class cabin,” says Feuerherd. “But this is causing the Maldives to lose some high-end passengers because if they can’t find decent transport, they’d rather go elsewhere. That’s where we really come in.”
Beond will offer just 44 total seats in its Airbus A319s, although the aircraft can carry up to 156 passengers in the all-economy configuration. The larger A321s, which will enter service in 2024, are planned to seat 68, an aircraft that normally accommodates up to 220 economy passengers.
That means there won’t be any dreaded middle seats – the two-row configuration aims to provide a sense of luxury and comfort. The seats were designed by Italian manufacturer Optimares, who provided similar interiors for a bespoke Four Seasons A321 private jet. The seats share the same components as LaFerrari, a luxury sports car that was priced at about $1.5 million when it launched in 2013 and is now selling for much more at auction.
“I’m about 1.80 meters tall and so is our CEO, and that was pretty much the height reference we worked with to not feel like we were slipping out of bed,” says Feuerherd. “Due to the nature of our passengers, who are often couples, we also decided very quickly that we wanted two side-by-side.”
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The airline will launch flights to Delhi and Dubai.
Beond is co-owned by UAE based company Arabesque and Maldivian hotel company SIMDI and holds a certificate of operation from Maldives as a Designated Freight Forwarder. There is a 50-year agreement with the Maldivian government.
Although it plans to start operations as early as September, the airline is still reluctant to launch destinations beyond Delhi and Dubai. However, Feuerherd expects that once capacity is reached (by the end of 2024), around 60% of the airline’s traffic will come from Europe, with around 20 destinations.
Asian routes will include Japan, South Korea and China, and Beond will also offer direct services to Australia, starting with Perth, and South Africa, initially to Cape Town.
By the end of 2024, the airline plans to operate around a dozen aircraft, all on lease, including some brand new A321LR aircraft – long-haul versions of the popular A321.
The use of narrowbody aircraft will be uncommon on some of Beyond’s longer routes, which are typically served by larger, widebody aircraft such as the Airbus A350 or Boeing 787.
However, pure business class airlines have used narrow body aircraft before. La Compagnie, a French boutique airline connecting Paris with New York, has two A321LRs in its four-person fleet (the others are A321neos). The private jet Four Seasons is also an A321LR. British Airways, meanwhile, used an A318 – the smallest aircraft in the Airbus A320 family – for its former all-business class flight from London to New York.
And maybe the little plane is the key. EOS, Maxjet and Silverjet, all of which offered transatlantic flights exclusively in business class before going bankrupt in 2007 and 2008, all used widebody aircraft.
According to Feuerherd, the smaller aircraft will not pose a problem for most passengers because the cabin does not have the “airiness” of larger aircraft, but it does increase the private jet feeling.
“I do believe that the advantages and disadvantages really balance each other out there,” he says. “We couldn’t fill a widebody with this concept, it would be a bit too big. However, with a narrow fuselage we achieve significant cost savings in terms of operating costs, fuel burn, manpower and landing and handling fees, giving us a real competitive advantage over the big birds.”
As a result, the price of Beyond will be “attractive”, with prices from Europe starting at around US$3,000 round trip, but rising in the high season, which runs from December to April in the Maldives.
For comparison, the cheapest business class flight CNN could find from London to Malé during peak season was US$3,133 on Etihad in January 2024. From Frankfurt, Oman Air has flights starting at US$2,762 – a cheaper high-season fare than Beyond is proposing for its low-season fares. However, none of the flights are direct.
Meanwhile, Emirates is selling Dubai-Malé tickets from around $3100 in business class from December to April next year. There are no direct flights from Delhi, but airlines like Air India offer business class seats from around $750 on a single connection.
“My personal goal on the commercial side is that getting too greedy doesn’t help us,” says Feuerherd. “We’re not going to want to be price leaders.” He adds that most bookings are likely to come from tour operators and not directly from customers.
Matteo Colombo/Moment RF/Getty Images
Many people fancy a luxury flight to the island paradises of the Maldives.
According to Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at Cirium, an aeronautics consultancy, the first routes Beond is targeting – Dubai and Delhi – have different potential.
“Dubai is currently well served from Malé, with an average of seven daily rotations in August 2023 and more than 60,000 seats per route per month,” he says, citing timetable data retrieved by Cirium.
“This includes around 12% of the seats in the premium class. The competition on this track will be challenging.
“In contrast, Delhi-Malé is currently unserved, at least directly, so there may be more options.”
Mike Stengel, a director at Aerodynamic Advisory, another aviation consultancy, says that throughout the history of aviation, the successes of all-business class airlines have not been great: “One reason is that their destiny is tied to these concentrated niche markets; They just don’t offer the same connectivity options as network airlines.”
Because they are tied only to premium travelers, they are vulnerable to downturns or a weakening of business travel demand: “In the long term, I think they will face quite a lot of competition, especially from the big Middle East airlines.” It’s hard for anyone to beat the first or business class flights from Emirates, Qatar or Etihad.”
However, he believes that the Maldives is certainly the right market for a new luxury option. “I think there’s some merit to that, especially if you can channel demand from luxury travel agencies that sell it as part of a package,” he says.
“There’s probably a niche for premium travelers who want more private jet experiences but may not have the private jet budget.”