Take what you know about the premium cabin air travel experience today and throw it away. That is, at least in part, the message of Beond, the upstart all-premium airline set to launch operations from the Maldives next month. The company sees itself as a lifestyle brand, not an airline, and it wants to dramatically change the way upscale travelers come to its home country.
We are one class of service airline and are purely focusing on premium but we are not a business class airline. We try to avoid the business class [name] because our customers will not travel for business. They travel for the experiences. They travel for joy, for leisure with their loved ones.
– Tero Taskila, CEO of Beond
Not the premium seats you might expect
Take the seats on board, for example. Beond selected the Optimares Maxima Plus for its cabin. This is the same seat Hawaiian Airlines chose for its A330s. It is also flying for Four Seasons on its 757 used for round-the-world journeys. One key reason both of those companies selected the seat is that it specifically invites interaction among passengers rather than isolating them on board.
CEO Tero Taskila specifically noted the lower monuments and walls on the Maxima Plus seat as an advantage for his company as passengers will be traveling as couples or families. Similarly, the seats will not feature doors or other privacy-related features so often in new business class cabins today.
When the monuments are high you are basically…in your own cocoon, but then you travel alone. We designed the seat with a lower seat back. It creates a private experience but also allows for you to be able to connect with your loved ones, so you can talk without any effort to the person next to you.
Of note, the exit row and bulkhead feature a full sized ottoman as part of the bed layout. Other rows offer a much smaller foot well.
Beond will launch service with an A319 featuring 44 seats on board. This will be followed by the A321ceo with 68 seats. The carrier expects deliveries of new A321LR/XLR aircraft from 2024 (also 68 seats), and a goal of 32 planes in its fleet serving 60 destinations within five years. It has firmed orders for 16 ship sets of seats so far.
Entertainment with a twist (and no connectivity)
Beond chose an iPad-based entertainment solution rather than embedded screens on board, another departure from legacy premium cabin offerings. Taskila claims a 25kg/seat weight savings on the tablet option, while also focusing on the ability to customize and adjust content on a much quicker cycle than traditional IFE solutions offer.
Taskila also suggests the company may eventually be able to personalize content by route or even to a particular passenger’s tastes, though that seems to be a solution much further down the line. He also noted that Beond has been approached by companies to operate charter flights into the Maldives. With the iPad solution he anticipates creating an inflight entertainment content package which incorporates that company’s materials on board.
Beond will also forego in-flight internet service on board, a decision Taskila says is supported by passenger demands, even as the carrier prepares to operate 10+ hour journeys to and from the Maldives. “Customer surveys say that you go to the Maldives to detox,” he explains. “Especially for the people who are paying for those prices on a premium travel, they want to escape that hustle and bustle and being connected all the time.”
While that makes some sense, especially for the overnight flights to the islands where demand will be far lower, it is unclear that passengers headed home on the long daytime flights will truly want to still be disconnected during that journey. Taskila’s view also would seem to diverge from evolving trends in the industry where leisure passengers are, more and more, choosing to pay for internet on board as an entertainment diversion.
Beond may change its tune on inflight internet service at some point, but even then Taskila would prefer something more attuned to the company’s value proposition. “We are looking into opportunities to introduce a service for necessary communication, but which would not allow access to your work email. And you could post on Instagram about the wonderful aircraft you’re flying on.” While technically mostly possible, this seems a rather bizarre approach, especially given the expense of connectivity systems.
Competing on price
Yes, luxury and brand are key components of Beond’s value proposition. But the carrier also believes it can consistently undercut the competition on price and still make money doing so. “We have set our sights to always be the price leader,” Taskila says. “We believe in affordable luxury.” For now that affordable price point is holding steady across the three launch markets, somewhere between $1,500-3,000 each direction, depending on market and ticket type.
And while every seat on board offers a premium experience, Beond is not above adding a bit of differentiation on its fares. The basic “Delight” fare level does not include lounge access nor the airport transfer service. At the top end the “Opulence” fare includes both of those, as well as an increased cabin and checked baggage allowance and flexibility (but not refundability) for the ticket.
Can Beond operate the routes successfully with $90,000 in revenue from the A319 (or ~$150k on the A321, assuming ~75% load factors)? Taskila believes the lack of legacy overhead and complexity work in his favor, even with the higher marginal costs of supporting a premium experience. Perhaps it helps that, as noted above, passengers pay for the “included” chauffeur service to the airport and lounge access.
Operating challenges, too
The A319 has impressive range, especially with just 44 seats on board. But it is not enough to operate between the Maldives and Europe. Beond will launch operations with a tech stop at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) for its Munich and Zurich flights (previously the carrier indicated the tech stop would be at Riyadh; the website still shows Riyadh).
Taskila notes that passengers will not deplane and that the travel time in the markets will still be faster than most other options for those passengers. And the timing will improve as the new planes arrive and the older aircraft are assigned to shorter routes.
Moreover, this is a short-term challenge for the carrier. As the A321LR/XLR joins the fleet it will operate the segments nonstop. Not breaking up the trip (and waking up the passengers) in the middle of the night for a landing will be far more compelling as a luxury offering.
Beyond the technical operating characteristics, Beond must also address some logistical challenges for travelers. Arriving to the islands in the early morning can be challenging when it comes to hotel check-in, for example. And the current schedule shows mostly early arrivals. On the plus side, Beond will offer some of the latest departures from Male for its passengers, allowing them to enjoy their last day of vacation for longer.
Questionable sustainability claims
Premium cabin travel is rarely seen as a sustainable approach to transportation. Beond must contend with this challenge, even as it markets its ultra premium lifestyle approach.
Addressing these concerns, Taskila took an interesting tack. On the one hand, he highlighted the potential for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs), noting, “We will be in the forefront of utilizing [Sustainable Aviation] fuel in terms of the percentages. We will be more advanced that the other international airlines have already announced that they will be moving to 5% of SAF fuel by 2030. We will get there faster and we will utilize that fuel more.” But he declined to commit to specific details nor share where he expects to source the SAF, a challenge across the industry given limited production to date. Also, many major airlines have committed to 10% by 2030, not the 5% he cited.
Taskila also highlighted the lower fuel burn of the smaller aircraft Beond will fly as a compelling environmental pitch. “From the fuel perspective, we are using a fuel efficient narrowbody aircraft on the routes which typically operated by heavy large aircraft. So our emissions are significantly lower on a route basis than those aircraft which has been flown to the Maldives so far.” This argument also is used by the company to claim operating costs roughly half of larger carriers flying wide-body aircraft into the islands.
Alas, only considering emissions on a per-flight basis is an incredibly misleading approach.
An Emirates 777-300ER might have double the emissions as the Beond A319, but it comes with 300 more seats, as well as significant cargo capacity. On a per passenger basis – even flying up front – a passenger’s carbon footprint will be much smaller on the larger plane, assuming normal load factors.
But, hey, at least it is lower emissions per person than flying a private jet to Malé.
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