A Boeing 747-200 hotel that resides adjacent to Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport (ARN) is under threat of being scrapped after its owner declared bankruptcy. The one-of-a-kind accommodation, which has welcomed visitors since it first opened to guests in 2009, has seen thousands of travelers stay in its budget dorms over that time, although it now looks as though the Jumbo-sized hotel’s days may well be numbered.
Jumbo Stay, formerly known as the Jumbo Hostel, was constructed from a former Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-200B registered as 9V-SQE that originally entered service with that carrier in 1979. However, according to the Swedish publication Upsala Nya Tidning, its current owner, having faced financial pressures for several years, declared himself bankrupt on Friday, March 21, 2025.
According to the appointed bankruptcy trustees, the hotel has become economically unviable and is no longer able to trade as a going concern. Resultingly, Jumbo Stay officially closed its doors on March 17, 2025, with 800 advance reservations having to be canceled as a result. The most likely outcome now is for the airframe to be scrapped and removed from the site in pieces.
“It’s sad that a hotel that may be the only one of its kind in the world is disappearing”, said bankruptcy trustee Daniel Svensson. “It is quite sad that a hotel as special as this, which has gained global recognition, is now coming to an end,” he added.
Skilfully constructed inside the fuselage of a Boeing 747-200, the hotel offered 33 rooms and 76 beds and became a must-stay on the bucket list of any self-respecting aviation enthusiast as well as other curious travelers. The Jumbo Hotel offered three different types of rooms which comprised four dorm rooms, five standard rooms, and three suites. The four dorm rooms include both two and four-bed male dorms, with the same being offered for female travelers.
All dorms had access to a shared bathroom. The standard rooms came in double, twin, single, and triple with a shared bathroom and another single room with its own toilet space.
Oscar Diös, the founder and owner of the Jumbo Stay, first heard of the opportunity to take over a 747 and convert it into a hotel in 2007. He learned about a Boeing 747 that would be decommissioned at Arlanda Airport that same year. Diös, already experienced in the conversion of trains, boats, and lighthouses into hotels, took the opportunity to purchase the aircraft, and later in 2007, the Swedish authorities granted him a building license to establish his 747-based hotel at the entrance of Arlanda Airport, as a way to promote the airport to passers-by.
Having been stripped to its basic airframe structure, and its 450-seat interiors having been removed, the aircraft was towed to the designated construction site, the aircraft was subsequently refitted with all the conveniences of a modern hotel including much-needed heating and climate controls which were provided by way of an air-to-air inverter. The entire renovation cost $3 million. Diös described his creation as a mix between a hostel and a budget hotel.
However, the Jumbo Hotel’s status has lost appeal in recent times. According to reports, the hotel’s revenue dropped from SEK 8 million ($800,000) in 2019 to just half of that figure in 2023. Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic which deeply impacted the hotel’s fortunes, increased competition from other budget hotels located at or close to Arlanda Airport, as well as the withdrawal of advertising rights on its site have also impacted the iconic hotel’s bottom line in recent years.
“Until five years ago [2020], we could sell advertising space where the Jumbo Hotel stands. Then Swedavia took over the advertising sales,” said Oscar Diös. “It is, of course, disappointing that everyone who planned to stay with us during the summer holidays can no longer do so,” he added.
Despite efforts to find a buyer, state-owned airport operator Swedavia has announced that it will not lease the land to another operator. This decision ultimately means that even if a potential buyer could be found for the aircraft, there is no future for a hotel to be operated on the site, whether that be in the form of a Boeing 747 or otherwise.
With the hotel no longer operating as a going concern, and its future now under a significant cloud, the dismantling of the Jumbo Hotel now seems inevitable, bringing to an end a 16-year period where you could stay in the cozy surroundings of a historic icon of long-haul travel.
