New all business class airline BeOnd has launched service from its hub in the Maldives. That may be a decent business during peak tourist season from November through March but they need somewhere super premium to send these planes the rest of the year.

Local island carrier Maldivian, which flies turboprops from the capital of Male to the country’s island airports, looked at the upstart flying narrowbody planes and said hold my beer. They’re looking to lease a Boeing 787-8 along with an Airbus A330-200 starting in the spring – right as travel to the country begins to dry up for rainy season. It’s willing to make a six year commitment to the aircraft.

Maldivian is seeking a two-class aircraft with at least 270 seats, including 15-20 in the business cabin.

Its preference is for a General Electric GEnx-powered airframe – although it will consider one fitted with Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines – with a maximum take-off weight of 227t.

The airline says it wants to develop a nonstop long-haul network from Male.

Going from operating turboprop hops between islands to flying 787s brings to mind Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra), “He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”

The airline currently operates 23 aircraft. That includes 3 ATRs, 8 Bombardier Dash 8s, and 11 DHC-6 Twin Otters. They have a single narrowbody Airbus A320 used in short haul international flying, such as to India.

Now they want two widebody aircraft. They don’t even want them to be the same type of aircraft. They are looking for the complexity of a varied fleet, with different pilot training, mechanical expertise and spare parts needs. Maybe they should add another (much smaller) Airbus A320 to grow international flying first?

As a government-owned airline, they’re not likely to operate a counter-seasonal hub either. Instead they will have widebodies they cannot fill for much of the year, that are expensive to operate, largely duplicating services already offered by other airlines with a lower cost base due to their scale. It’s cheaper to fly widebodies to the Maldives when you fly lots of widebodies to other destinations also. Surely this is the worst possible idea for a new airline so far in 2024. As always, there will be worse ones to come!