The A380 hotel will have two suites located at the front and rear of the fuselage, one making use of the aircraft’s original stairs for a duplex, while the Cockpit Suite will feature a king-sized bed and a premium bathroom with a freestanding bathtub. Both will measure in at 35-square-metres each.
That 60-seat restaurant I mentioned above won’t be located onboard, however. An annex building stands nearby the aircraft, where is where both the restaurant and hotel reception will be located.
While the other A380s are continually being capped at aircraft boneyards around the world, this particular aircraft will meet a more dignified end and become part of one of the travel industry’s most interesting adaptive reuse projects where aviation is concerned. We’ve already seen one of JFK’s abandoned terminals turned into an award-winning luxury hotel in New York, but to tighten the scope with the world’s largest jumbo jet is infinitely more fascinating. And that’s regardless of whether or not Envergure turns out to be as lush and spacious as JFK’s TWA Hotel.
The hotel could open as early as 2024, assuming Deleuze finds an appropriate A380 soon. Reportedly, the engineer is still searching for the right A380 and hopes that work will begin on the hotel later this year.
According to Executive Traveller, Deleuze cites a meeting with Airbus on the environmental impacts of dismantling an A380 as the initial inspiration for the hotel, tapping into the importance of a circular economy and the trend of upcycling which is still picking up in the global travel industry.
Notably, this won’t be the first aircraft hotel if it does indeed become a reality. That honour belongs to Jumbo Stay in Stockholm, although that hotel doesn’t look particularly spacious despite it being housed in a former Boeing 747-212B.
