I’ve written about Beond Airlines, which bills itself as the world’s first premium leisure airline. The airline has an all-business class Airbus A319 that it operates on routes to and from the Maldives. The company has some lofty goals (to put it politely), and eventually wants to operate dozens of planes to destinations around the globe.

As much as I’d love for this concept to be successful, I’ve been skeptical about the viability of this since the beginning. Not because an all-business class airline can’t work, but rather because the Maldives isn’t the market where this concept makes the most sense. In this post I wanted to take a look at just how unreliably Beond Airlines seems to be operating, and how much it has cut its network.

At a minimum, it’s an indication of how the airline doesn’t seem to be doing as well as hoped. But it’s also something that prospective customers should consider, since booking a ticket on Beond Airlines in advance seems to be like buying a lottery ticket, in terms of whether your flight will actually operate.

Beond Airlines keeps suspending routes, canceling flights

Beond Airlines primarily operates routes to & from Male (MLE). When the airline launched, it first flew to Munich (MUC) and Zurich (ZRH), with both routes operating via Dubai (DWC), as a refueling stop. In the meantime, the airline has started operating the Zurich to Dubai sector as a fifth freedom route, meaning you can book flights exclusively between Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Then the airline also added Riyadh (RUH) as a destination, and plans to add Milan (MXP) flights as of July 3, 2024.

It’s interesting to look at how the network is doing as of now (June 18, 2024). Looking at Beond Airlines’ website:

• This spring, Beond Airlines suspended its Munich route due to lack of demand, and it plans to bring it back in October 2024, after a seasonal suspension
• The airline has been marketing that it flies 2x weekly to Zurich; however, the last flight from Zurich was operated on June 4, and now the booking system doesn’t show another flight in the market until July 2, so it has just mysteriously been suspended for around a month
• The airline has been marketing that it flies 4x weekly to Dubai; the current schedule shows a flight on June 20, and then the next flight on July 2
• The Riyadh service is the only one that seems to be operating reliably, and that service will increase from 2x weekly to 3x weekly as of July 2024
• The airline shows that it will launch Milan flights on July 3, with 2x weekly flights, though let’s see if that route actually launches

I would have to assume that these flights are being canceled due to soft demand. I’d be very cautious about booking a flight with Beond Airlines, since I’ve seen several reports of people learning just days in advance that their flight was canceled, and in some cases only being given the option of a refund or an economy flight on another airline.

I should also mention that looking at Flightradar24 for Beond Airlines’ aircraft, the carrier’s on-time performance is absolutely abysmal for situations where it does bother operating its flights. And that’s for situations where the plane is flying — for example, the A319 didn’t operate a single flight between June 7 and June 13, and just sat on the ground for six days.

It’s also interesting to note that Beond Airlines’ schedule is open all the way through October 2025. Most airlines open their schedule at most a year out, while Beond Airlines is opening it around 16 months out. Is this because most people plan their travel to the Maldives further out, or is it because the airline is desperate to raise cash however it needs to? I don’t know…

This doesn’t seem like a healthy company to me

I’ve shared my take on why I don’t think Beond Airlines will succeed. It’s not that I don’t want the airline to succeed — I do — but it’s just not a logical business model, at least for an airline based in the Maldives. There are plenty of other markets where I think an all-business class airline would succeed before the Maldives.

So I’m not surprised to see that Beond Airlines has basically axed its network at this point. The airline isn’t operating any Europe flights for several weeks, and the only destination that’s proving to be consistent is Riyadh. I guess the airline is at least saving on its alcohol costs.

Earlier this year, View from the Wing had an interview with the Beond Airlines CEO, and the title started with “Skeptic Turned Believer?” This interview basically sums up why I often don’t value these kinds of interview opportunities, because so many CEOs will just say what they think they have to say, regardless of whether or not it’s the truth.

The CEO claimed that “European markets are on the spot we want to be” in terms of performance and load factor. This was in February, and just a couple of weeks later, the airline announced it would suspend Munich flights, and now the airline has suspended Zurich flights. I’m curious what suddenly changed?

I suspect that the CEO was just saying what he thought people wanted to hear, which is that the service is doing great and airline will keep operating these routes… until it doesn’t.

Another major issue with Beond Airlines’ business model is that the Maldives is a seasonal destination. The CEO argued that demand for travel to the Maldives only fluctuated by around 8%, and the bigger fluctuation is with fares. Yet Beond Airlines hasn’t actually materially adjusted its fares for summer, and obviously the premium demand is way down, based on the fact that the airline is axing routes.

The CEO also argued that Beond Airlines’ product is so special that “people are willing to wait.” Well, I hope they’re willing to wait weeks or even months, based on how the airline adjusts its schedule…

Bottom line

All-business class airline Beond Airlines isn’t operating reliably at all. Earlier this year, the airline suspended its Munich route, and now the airline has suspended its Zurich route for several weeks. The airline is also only operating a small portion of its Dubai schedule. The only route that seems to be operating reliably is Riyadh.

I’m curious for how much longer the airline can sustain this kind of an operating model. Let’s see what happens with the Milan service that’s supposed to launch on July 3…