Startup airline Beond is an all-premium leisure-focused carrier, which launched its first commercial service in November 2023. In this interview, ahead of his participation at the co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing events (Dublin, 11-13 June 2024), Tero Taskila, CEO & Co-Founder, shares how Beond is responding to key CX trends, including personalisation, seamless booking and travel, sustainability, and technology integration.
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“Beond is the world’s first premium leisure airline,” Taskila begins. “We are very much focused on leisure travel where there is a strong desire for point-to-point connectivity by discerning travellers to one of the most sought-after locations in the world, the Maldives. The entire experience from the start of the customer journey until they return home is truly premier. You only need to see our aircraft – charcoal grey with copper accents – and the onboard experience to see that we are already bringing the best experience in our origin markets for customers.”
The airline launched commercial service in November 2023 and is currently serving the Maldives from Munich, Zurich and Riyadh. Taskila reports that the customer response so far has been excellent and gets better as Beond becomes more established in the market. “We’ve received remarkable support from the government of Maldives and partners,” he explains. “We launched flights from Dubai in April, and launch flights from Milan in July, and return to Munich this fall. We are serving Zurich and Riyadh and those markets are performing well. Our goal is 32 aircraft and 60 destinations worldwide, within five years. Maldives is our first hub. We are a new airline, and most of these markets do not have service directly to the Maldives, so that makes for a very unique offer for our customers.”
Beond’s customer service experience starts even before passengers get aboard the plane. The airline offers limousine service to chauffeur passengers to the airport, and upon arrival they have airport lounge access to relax and prepare for their flight – each optional. “Onboard, we offer a wide variety of tailored dishes specifically designed to use the freshest ingredients we can source,” says Taskila. “All seats on our planes were designed by Optimares, with the seat shells the same as used by Ferrari – needless to say, they are the epitome of comfort. Additionally, we’ll soon be offering Apple Vision Pro to our passengers as well, to create an immersive inflight experience.”
Apple Vision Pro to offer immersive inflight experiences for Beond passengers
Indeed, Beond recently announced that it will be the first airline to offer the Apple Vision Pro to passengers. The Apple Vision Pro will enhance the inflight entertainment experience by offering advanced features and content options to passengers. Its high-resolution display and immersive capabilities will allow travellers to enjoy a wide range of entertainment, including movies, games, and exclusive content showcasing the beauty of the Maldives. Additionally, the Apple Vision Pro will provide a platform for Beond to deliver curated experiences, such as virtual tours of resort destinations and activities, effectively building anticipation for passengers before they reach their destination.
“We are very excited to be the first airline to offer the Apple Vision Pro onboard,” Taskila shares. “It offers immersive experiences for passengers, such as virtual tours of destinations or interactive inflight entertainment. On the other hand, advancements in data analytics and personalisation algorithms help us offer tailored experiences and targeted promotions to our customers. We have built a strong database of interest in our first markets, and those potential customers will someday, we believe, become customers that we welcomed aboard a flight. It’s about making sure that these customers understand the benefits of flying Beond, and seeing their contemporaries, be it on social media or in the media or just word of mouth, describing their Beond experience.”
“Travellers increasingly expect personalised experiences tailored to their preferences”
Taskila observes some key trends in terms of customer expectations of the travel experience, and Beond is proactively responding to these. The first of these is personalisation. “Travellers increasingly expect personalised experiences tailored to their preferences and needs,” Taskila explains. “People in the industry have been speaking about personalised experiences for years, but they have such technical debt that they can’t actually make it happen. With a small fleet of narrow-body aircraft, and a built-from-scratch booking experience, we’re able to quickly react to market preferences and forces. This allows us to tailor our flights, entertainment, dining selections and more to our customers. We actually can personalise – truly – much more nimbly than the larger carriers. We’ve got a clean sheet when it comes to technology.”
Frictionless booking processes and seamless travel experiences are another key customer expectation and are very important to Beond. “Travellers expect easy-to-use digital platforms for booking flights and to contact our customer service team if needed – these are elements that are built into our business model,” says Taskila. “We have a strong channel of bookings through premium travel agents, but we do sell many bookings through our website channel – FlyBeond.com – which is quite elegant, I think, just like our planes, our cabin, and our catering.”
There is a growing demand for sustainable travel options as customers become more environmentally conscious. This is why Beond is exploring a partnership with CarbonClick to allow its customers to offset their carbon footprint. “Through a rigorous auditing process, CarbonClick selects the best climate projects to support, ensuring high quality and impact,” Taskila comments.
Technology integration is also a key focus area and Beond is responding by providing features like mobile check-in, digital boarding passes, inflight Wi-Fi, and Augmented Reality for destination exploration.
FTE Future Differentiation & Business Models Think Tank: “Beond and its model have an interesting contribution to bring”
Future Travel Experience is wholeheartedly committed to driving positive industry change. A vital part of these efforts are its unique Think Tank projects, which bring together senior experts and leaders from across the industry to tackle key topics, co-create forward-thinking visions, and address common challenges. Taskila is speaking at the co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary & Retailing events as part of the FTE Future Differentiation & Business Models Think Tank, alongside Steven Greenway, CEO, flyadeal; Sammy Patel, Vice President Commercial, Vantage Airport Group; Guðmundur Daði Rúnarsson, Chief Commercial and Airport Development Officer, Keflavik Airport; Martin Jones, CEO, CAVU; and Rohit Talwar, CEO, Fast Future. The team are collaborating and engaging to create a unique vision and presentation deck that will be shared exclusively at the event in Dublin, with the aims of inspiring attendees and setting the tone for everything that follows at the show.
Looking ahead, Taskila is eager to participate in Dublin. “I’m very pleased to attend – I’ve been following the developments at FTE since the start of my days in the airline industry. I think Beond and its model have an interesting contribution to bring. One of our main features – aside from being the world’s first premium leisure airline – is our superior operating economics. We’re offering an extremely low cost per seat mile to our customers, while providing a private-jet-like experience. Unlike travelling on business or first class with a major airline, our planes are light, single-aisle aircraft, so every seat is truly premium, and the experience is a premium experience. So, we’ve achieved low costs and excellent revenue. So, I will be pleased to share this knowledge, this experience and our business model for the Think Tank.”
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