Boutique airline beOnd announced on February 15, 2026, that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA), Bahrain’s aviation authority, to explore the obtention of a new Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in the country.
If the airline’s plans come to fruition, beOnd could base up to 10 of its aircraft in Bahrain (BAH) by 2030, in order to serve the premium leisure and business markets. beOnd estimates that such an operation would create more than 1,200 direct high-skilled jobs and indirectly support another 6,000 jobs in Bahrain across the supply chain, tourism and related industries, contributing approximately US$1.2–1.5 billion to the Kingdom’s GDP.
beOnd also plans to train pilots, cabin crew, engineers, and ground staff in Bahrain and invest in the supporting technical infrastructure., This further supports the Kingdom’s ambitions, under the so-called “Bahrain Economic Vision 2030”, to become a major node of the global aerospace industry.
From its initial base in the Maldives, beOnd continues apace with its international roll-out. In December 2025, after having closed a US$100 million Series C investment round, the luxury airline announced the launch of a subsidiary in Saudi Arabia.
This new airline will operate under its own AOC and will further consolidate its footprint in the Middle East. BeOnd currently operates flights linking Male (MLE), the capital of the Maldives, to Europe via Riyadh (RUH) and Dubai Al-Maktoum (DWC) and it has also started to operate nonstop flights between Red Sea International (RSI), on Saudi Arabia’s western coast, and Milan Malpensa (MXP).
In the press release announcing the project, Tero Taskila, beOnd’s founder and CEO, said: “Establishing a Bahrain-based airline is a natural next step in our multi-jurisdictional strategy. Together, we have the opportunity to build a premium aviation platform that strengthens connectivity, develops specialized talent, and supports innovation across the travel value chain.”
For Bahrain, the project will represent a further diversification of its air connectivity. Earlier in February 2026, and at the other end of the market spectrum, low-cost airline AirAsia X announced its intention to use Bahrain as a transit point for its services connecting London-Gatwick Airport (LGW) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL), Malaysia.
The launch of these services may eventually be followed by the establishment of an AirAsia X base in the Gulf country, the airline’s first outside of East Asia.
