Luxury Leisure Airline beOnd Plans 18 New Routes to The Maldives

Updated: April 29, 2025, 2:06pm CDT

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Table of Contents

Examining beOnd’s Expansion to 18 New Destinations
What It’s Like Flying With beOnd to the Maldives
Final Thoughts

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You’ll struggle to find an airline more ambitious than beOnd.

The luxury boutique start-up plans to launch routes to 18 new destinations from its base in the Maldives by the end of 2026. For an airline that currently only operates to 5 destinations, that’s a lofty goal.

“The Maldives is well-suited to capture this demand, and more so with the connectivity beOnd brings to the market,” said Tero Taskila, CEO at beOnd.

Let’s take a look at the details of this latest development in the world of luxury flying.

Examining beOnd’s Expansion to 18 New Destinations

As it stands, beOnd operates a niche route network of 5 routes. It connects its base at Male Velana International Airport (MLE) in the Maldives with Dubai (DWC), Milan (MXP), Munich (MUC), Riyadh (RUH), and Zurich (ZRH).

The addition of its planned 18 routes to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia would more than quadruple the size of the airline’s route network.

Map of planned new BeOnd routes — Map of beOnd’s planned 18-route network expansion. Image Credit: Great Circle Mapper

An expansion of such scale will certainly be no easy feat, especially as beOnd only has 2 aircraft in operation: an Airbus A319 (registered 8Q-FBA) and a larger Airbus A321 (registered 8Q-FBB).

As such, the frequency of its flights is limited to just 2x weekly on 3 out of 5 of its routes. The route to Dubai (DWC) has up to 4x weekly services, as beOnd stops here for fuel en route to Europe. Its route to Munich is currently not in service but will return for the European winter season.

To increase from 5 to 23 routes, beOnd will need at least 6 more aircraft — and fast! A spokesperson for the airline confirmed there’ll be an update on beOnd’s fleet tomorrow.

Hot Tip:

Dreaming of heading to the Maldives but don’t have the cash? Check out our guide on how to vacation in the Maldives by using points!

What It’s Like Flying With beOnd to the Maldives

Flying beOnd is a hybrid between flying private and commercial.

It combines the luxury of an all-business-class cabin with prices that undercut the likes of Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience on board as a guest of the airline. Each of the 4 flights (2 flights total from Zurich to Malé and 2 total flights from Malé back to Munich) had only a handful of passengers. The empty cabin certainly echoed the quietness and exclusivity of flying private.

Daniel Ross selfie onboard BeOnd — The closest I’ve ever gotten to flying private. Image Credit: Daniel Ross

I was genuinely surprised by the quality and presentation of the meals. The lobster on the return flight from Malé is a must.

BeOnd onboard meal 1 1 — This chicken dish on the outbound journey was delicious as well. Image Credit: Daniel Ross

The real “wow” factor was the crew. Thanks to the impeccable, personal, and professional service I received, it was clear that each member of the beOnd crew that I met had been hand-picked for the airline.

Final Thoughts

It’s not every day you hear of an airline with just 2 aircraft planning to add 18 new routes in a short timeframe.

Credit where credit’s due, beOnd has managed to fly passengers to 5 destinations since November 2023, despite its very niche route network. What’s to say it won’t be able to add another 18?

We look forward to seeing how this network expansion unfolds, including news about new planes joining the airline’s fleet soon.