See the interior of Beond’s narrow-body Airbus aircraft, fully business class
3 mins read

See the interior of Beond’s narrow-body Airbus aircraft, fully business class

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  • Beond, a business class-only airline, launched in November 2023 with a 21-year-old Airbus A319 as its first aircraft.
  • The Maldives-based airline flies to Europe and Asia and is looking to expand its routes with the Airbus A321 aircraft.
  • Critics doubt the strategy, but Beond hopes it will win customers from larger competitors.

Maldives-based airline Beond is a largely unknown startup.

The premium leisure airline launched in November 2023 with its only 21-year-old business class-only Airbus A319-100 aircraft flying from the Maldives to Europe and Asia.

Beond recently added a 22-year-old A321-200 to its fleet, which has more capacity but slightly less range, to fly to new destinations such as Bangkok. It aims to have 32 longer-range, single-aisle Airbus jets in its fleet by 2025.

Despite its grand plans, the cards are stacked against Beond. Other airlines, including British Airways, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines, have tried to fly premium jets only on long-haul routes but have given up due to high costs and stiff competition.

Such a small fleet also leaves Beond with little flexibility if something goes wrong. In addition, most of its nonstop flights have a fuel stop in Dubai, and other carriers have more frequency options in comparison.

In July 2024, I flew with the airline for the first time to see how it stacked up against other niche business class-only competitors like La Compagnie.