BeOnd

Foundation

The only way to enter the Maldives from all countries is by air. At present, international airlines dominate operations at Velana International Airport, because the Maldives' flag carrier, Maldivian, has too small a fleet to cater to the growth at the airport and to compete with international airlines, along with connecting more worldwide destinations.^{[citation needed]}

Max Nilov, Tero Taskila and Sascha Feuerherd decided to create a new airline by forming a joint venture of two companies, Arabesque and SIMDI Group.^[7] beOnd plans to connect the Maldives to multiple European and Asian countries with their cities, as well as to Australia.^[9] It announced plans to operate to over 50 destinations in more than 25 countries with a fleet of over 30 aircraft in the next few years.^[10]

On 10 August 2023, the first aircraft, an Airbus A319, joined the fleet with 44 lie-flat seats in a 2-2 configuration.^{[citation needed]} Its Airbus A321 joined the fleet on 2 September 2024 with a seat configuration of 68 lie-flat seats in a 2-2 format.^[11][12]

Planned initial destinations were originally disclosed to include Dubai, Delhi, Hong Kong, Milan, Munich, Paris, Riyadh, Singapore, Taipei, Vienna and Zürich and a potential connection to Perth and Melbourne, along with seasonal destinations such as Finland.^[9][13][14]

Start of operations

beOnd was originally slated to begin commercial operations by September 2023.^[15] The actual start was in November 2023.^[2]

In February 2024, the airline announced it would downgrade its services to Munich to a seasonal route, citing economic reasons.^[16] At the same time, the new route to Bangkok originally announced for a start in July 2024 had also been cancelled.^[17]