There’s a new operator in The Maldives…
BeOnd – aimed at affluent holidaymakers in luxury resorts charging around $2000/night, this airline began flights in November 2023. Started by 3 former Lufthansa Consulting employees, each having at least 20 years’ airline experience. Seen as a viable alternative to chartering a private jet, the A319 has 44 seats in a business class layout. Its first routes from MLE are MUC, ZRH and RUH. Whilst registered in The Maldives, the airline names its base as Dubai (DWC). This will provide more opportunities to expand to other countries where there’s a large premium market.
More about the aircraft. It’s an A319-111, 20 years old. Registration 8Q-FBA. Formerly with easyJet where it operated with 156 seats. The last operator was German charter company, Sundair. After 2 months in storage, the refurb and paint job took around 4 weeks. Additional certificate was needed from Airbus as BeOnd decided to block off the aft over-wing emergency exits in favour of more storage space. Initially, the airline had wanted to operate the A321neo or LR, but availability would have meant lengthy delays to their launch. Something else on the to-do list is ETOPS certification…
Although the concept is high-end, the airline offers value for money, with fares below the usual business class levels offered by major carriers. The fares in mid-November start at $3,200, considerably less than the Gulf carriers. Given that German holidaymakers tend to book early, it was unsurprising that only 7 were on the inaugural MLE-MUC flight. Ther are so-called premium seats located on the first and overwing exit rows. However, these left much to be desired if you’re taller than 5ft 6in! Seat pitch is currently 60”, although this will increase to 62” when the first A321ceo starts flights in July. Inflight entertainment is via iPads handed out to passengers and currently, there is no wifi on board. The toilets are tiny, but BeOnd will be replacing these soon. A throwback to the aircraft’s low-cost operations. As expected, food and beverage offering resemble those of an upmarket restaurant with proper crockery, cutlery and glassware.
So will the airline survive? It’s difficult to say. Others have failed, but they’ve offered all-business class flights on transatlantic routes only.
In other news…
Bonza – recently went into voluntary liquidation. The Australian low-cost carrier, although popular with passengers, could not compete with Qantas and Virgin. The announcement was very sudden, with no indication that they were in trouble. The aircraft have already been repossessed by lessors, so it seems unlikely there will be any rescue interest. One rumour that surfaced in aviation media sources, is that one of Bonza’s backers has a criminal record. Whether this had anything to do with the airline’s demise has not been revealed.
B777X – in a recent interview, Lufthansa CEO commented that he did not expect to receive the new aircraft “until 2026 at the earliest”. There’s continued speculation that Emirates will hang onto its 777 fleet for longer or increase their A350 commitment. Watch this space…
Global Airlines – much excitement at PIK to herald the arrival of this new airline’s A380. The flightdeck crew provided by HiFly, the aircraft still painted in China Southern livery. It took off from MHV and flew gear down for the entire 5000nm journey. There was a refuelling stop at YMX before embarking on the transatlantic crossing. A lengthy scheduled maintenance programme is underway. There’s still speculation amongst aviation media sources about the July first flight date.
And finally…
Squawk 7000 – eagle-eyed FR24 and other flight tracker watchers took to social media the other day, asking why there were so many aircraft displaying the 7700 emergency code over Belgium and Luxembourg. It was not a hoax or major malfunction. The weather was awful with thunder, lightning and severe turbulence. It’s normal practice under these conditions for ATC in both countries to issue instructions to pilots, in case any require further assistance.
Information courtesy of Airliner World (March 2023), AirLive, Flightradar24
Images courtesy of Simple Flying Ayr Advertiser
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