Two Retired Boeing 747s Are Now Hotel Suites in Johor Bahru
A new Kempas property has turned a pair of jumbo jets into 18 bookable suites, and it is already taking guests.
Not many hotels can claim their rooms once cruised at 35,000 feet. The 1975 Avenue & Hotel in Kempas, Johor Bahru, has taken two retired Boeing 747s, parked them beside a man-made beach pool, and converted them into guest suites. The property soft opened on 8 August 2026, with an official opening planned for October, as reported by The Star on 15 September 2026. For aviation fans, families looking for an unusual Johor staycation, and Singapore residents who can be across the causeway in under an hour, this one is worth knowing about.
What is inside the aircraft
The two 747s are named Bove and Bey. Each aircraft holds nine suites, bringing the total to 18 aircraft suites across the property. Every one of them includes a bathtub, which is not something you associate with fuselage living, but the fit-out appears to have been done with more ambition than novelty alone.
Sleeping inside a jet that once flew Pan Am’s golden-age routes is the kind of detail that turns a hotel stay into a story worth telling.
Four suite categories are available: Premium, Business, Captain and Signature. The distinctions between them have not been detailed publicly, though the naming alone suggests a spread from accessible to top tier. About 20 additional rooms sit in a separate main building, putting the total room count at roughly 38.
What makes the Boeing 747 hotel concept interesting here is the provenance of the aircraft themselves. Aviation site Airport Spotting reports that one is a former Pan Am Boeing 747-121 that first flew in March 1970, and the other a former Japan Airlines Boeing 747SR delivered in February 1980. No source has confirmed which aircraft carries which name, so treat Bove and Bey as the hotel’s own designations rather than airline specific labels.
The grounds and facilities
Beyond the fuselages, the property spreads across a site that includes a man-made beach pool, restaurants, event spaces and recreation areas. The visual centrepiece, at least from promotional imagery, is the pair of 747s parked poolside at dusk. It looks cinematic in a way that most Johor Bahru hotels do not.
Tiong Nam Hospitality operates the property. The company is part of the Tiong Nam group, a Malaysian conglomerate with interests across logistics and property. Jimmy Khoo, Executive Director of Tiong Nam Properties, was named in an August 2022 announcement about the project, suggesting the development has been in the works for several years.
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Opening timeline
The soft opening landed on 8 August 2026. The official opening is set for October 2026, per The Star’s reporting. Room rates have not been published as of September 2026, so prospective guests will need to check directly with the hotel for pricing and availability.
It can also mean fewer crowds and more attentive service.
That gap between soft and official launch is common for properties still calibrating their operations, and it is worth noting that early guests sometimes get a rawer, less polished version of what the hotel intends to deliver. Your mileage, as with most soft openings, will vary.
How to get there
The 1975 Avenue & Hotel sits in Kempas, Johor Bahru. Its website places it about 20 minutes from Senai International Airport and roughly 40 minutes from Johor Bahru city centre. For anyone driving up from Singapore, Kempas is north of the city, so factor in the causeway crossing plus the drive inland.
Johor Bahru has been building its hospitality offering steadily, and the proximity to Singapore makes it a natural weekend escape for expats and families based on the island. A Boeing 747 hotel adds something genuinely different to the mix. This is not another waterfront resort or business tower. It is two jumbo jets in a field, and that is the appeal.
A second life for the Queen of the Skies
The Boeing 747 defined commercial aviation for more than half a century. Airlines around the world have been retiring their fleets in recent years, and most of those aircraft end up in boneyards or stripped for parts. A handful find second lives as museums, restaurants or, in this case, hotel suites.
There is something fitting about it. The 747 was always about the experience of flight as much as the destination. Turning one into a place you sleep, eat breakfast and watch the sunset from a cockpit window keeps that spirit alive in a different form.
For Johor Bahru, the 1975 Avenue & Hotel is a curiosity that could become a draw. For the rest of us, it is a reminder that the best travel ideas are sometimes the most impractical sounding ones, executed with enough conviction to actually work.
Check with the hotel directly for rates and booking details ahead of the October opening.
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