While I’ve questioned the carrier’s prospects of success since before launch, it’s not surprising that recent events are causing this.
Beond Airlines will stop flying its network this summer
Beond Airlines launched operations in 2023, and it brands itself as the world’s first premium leisure airline. The company is headquartered in Dubai, but primarily operates flights to and from the Maldives. I reviewed the airline in 2024, and the onboard product was super pleasant. The airline currently has a fleet of two aircraft, including one A319 and one A321.
Anyway, the company has just announced an update to its summer schedule, which is… basically that it won’t have one. Officially, the airline has announced that it’s suspending all flights between the Maldives and Europe for summer, with service resuming in October, for the winter season.
There’s no mention of flights to the Middle East, though those services aren’t bookable through Beond’s website for summer anymore either. So based on current booking prospects, it appears that the airline is basically shutting down its regularly scheduled operations over the next several months.
For those with bookings, the airline says it’ll be in touch with customers in the next 72 hours, with flexible rebooking policies, including fee-free moves to winter, future travel within 12 months, or a full refund.
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the airline has deleted its customer promise webpage, which used to guarantee rebooking on another airline in business class in the event a flight is canceled airline canceled, or else the airline would offer a free flight. That page is now gone, and there’s no mention of rebooking on another airline with this announcement.
So the airline will “support you every step of the way,” unless you actually want to take the vacation you booked, in which case you’re out of luck.
Could this finally be the end of Beond Airlines?
While Beond Airlines’ business plan was questionable under the best of circumstances, the current crisis makes matters worse:
- The high cost of jet fuel makes it really hard to operate flights profitably
- Beond’s business model is based on connecting the Maldives and Europe with a refueling stop in the Middle East (typically Dubai), and I can’t imagine that’s very appealing to many potential customers right now
So I feel bad for Beond, and I’m not trying to do a “told you so, I was right” thing, because these are of course exceptional circumstances. The thing that made me suspicious about Beond for so long is that the airline would repeatedly make outlandish growth announcements, only to rarely follow through on them. That’s neither here nor there, though.
What I am curious about is if Beond is really resuming operations in October, or if this might just be the end for the airline, if we’re just being realistic:
- I imagine the airline will keep trying to do lots of fundraising, by constantly promoting how it’s going to open new subsidiaries all over the world, launch dozens of new routes, etc.
- While operating flights during summer would’ve likely caused big losses, grounding planes isn’t exactly profitable either, especially when you still have to pay employees
- Oddly, Beond seems to have deleted its press release page on its website, and all of the company’s growth press releases are now gone
Only time will tell how this plays out. I’ll just politely say that if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t count on that October service resumption definitely happening…
Bottom line
All-business class airline Beond has announced that it’s suspending its flights between the Maldives and Europe for the summer season, though it appears that all flights (including to the Middle East) are cut during that period.
It’s understandable that the current situation is really challenging, between the price of jet fuel and having to refuel in the Middle East. However, I have to imagine the airline didn’t have great financial health before this whole mess started, so suspending flights for many months and then resuming flights also requires quite a bit of cash.
How do you see this playing out for Beond?
