Luxury travel is getting a new perk: Beond, a startup airline that calls itself “the world's first luxury leisure airline,” has announced plans to offer some passengers use of Apple Vision Pro during flights starting in July.
Founded in 2022, the Maldives-based airline currently operates three routes to and from the Maldives. Currently, there are no routes to the United States.
Passengers who get a chance to try the headset will be able to enjoy movies and games, but CEO Tero Taskira said the company also plans to “showcase the Maldives' incredible resorts and activities.”
“The in-flight experience sets expectations for our passengers even before they arrive in the Maldives,” Taskira added in a statement. “The launch of Apple Vision Pro marks another step towards our vision of offering our customers the best travel experience from the start to the end of their journey.”
There are some unclear points about this promotion: Beyond has yet to clarify what “selected passengers” means. The airline only has business class, and all seats can be converted into beds, so there are no cheap tickets that would give anybody a legitimate reason not to get the service.
Then there's the issue of the hardware itself: Vision Pro's battery life currently maxes out at about 2.5 hours; Beyond's shortest one-way flight time is twice that. (The airline offers flights from the Maldives capital, Male, to Munich, Zurich and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.) And some Vision Pro users have complained of getting motion sickness while wearing the headset.
And Beyond is still in its startup phase. It closed a $13 million funding round in December that allowed it to acquire a second aircraft, and it plans to launch routes to Milan, Dubai and Bangkok later this year. Fares start at $3,000, which is comparable to business-class tickets on competing airlines.
Reaction to the Vision Pro itself has been mixed, with some owners saying they plan to return their headsets before close of business on Friday, the deadline for returns for those who bought them on launch day, and the $3,500 price tag, significantly higher than other mixed reality headsets, putting the device out of reach for many customers.
But travelers to the Maldives will likely have plenty of disposable income, and a demo of the Vision Pro while sitting aboard a luxury jet might interest them in purchasing the device in the near future.
Apple doesn't seem to be in a rush to make its mixed reality headset a hot seller. It has already lowered its first-year sales forecast from 1 million to 400,000. It's also still getting consumers used to its promoted terms like “spatial computing.” The company wants to first win over developers, and then make Vision Pro more affordable for the general public.
This has made the first-generation model something of a status symbol, and Beond hopes that by being the first airline to offer Vision Pro to its passengers, it can cement its reputation as a premium luxury airline.
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