Retired Boeing 747 crosses major highway in Netherlands on journey to become hotel attraction

Why did the Boeing 747 cross the road? To start a new life as a hotel attraction in the Netherlands of course.

The decommissioned 747-400 created a bizarre sight as it rumbled across a major highway that had been closed to traffic to allow the huge airplane to make its eight-mile (12.5 kilometers) final journey by road from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airpor.

Once flown commercially by Dutch airline KLM, the aircraft formerly known as the “City of Bangkok,” has been Acquired by Corendon Hotels & Resorts,

It’s set to become a visitor attraction, known as the Corendon Boeing 747 Experience in the garden of the Corendon Village Hotel in Badhoevedorp.

“Huge attraction”

Before the Boeing's journey began, it was repainted in Corendon colors.

While the hotel chain is keeping specifics under wraps, spokeswoman Daisy Homoet-Mijnals told CNN that it will be a “huge attraction for everybody who wants to experience the sensation of flying.”

The installation will incorporate aviation history and art, as well as “3D, 4D and 5D” elements. Visitors will have access to the plane’s cockpit, and will be also be able to walk over its wings.

Corendon Hotels & Resorts obtained the Boeing after its last commercial flight in November 2018, when it traveled from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. It was subsequently flown to Rome, to be stripped of its KLM colors and repainted in Corendon’s corporate red and white livery.

On its return to the Netherlands, all reusable components were removed by aircraft recycling company AELS.

Watching online

The jet pictured on the road.

Almost 9,000 people applied to win tickets to watch the plane’s journey to Badhoevedorp in person, according to Corendon. Only 6,000 were successful, but the hotel chain set up a livestream for undeterred enthusiasts to watch from home. You can still watch the video here, if you missed the live updates.

“For a lot of people this is a historical moment, because they have a special connection with the 747, the biggest invention of Boeing,” Homoet-Mijnals said.

The first stage of the journey began at night on February 5, when the jet, propped on a self- propelling trailer from transport company Mammoet, left Schiphol Airport. The plane was first moved towards a provincial road, crossing over fields and bridges on the way.

Crossing the highway

Aircraft revitalized: What happens to an aircraft when it retires from service? From hotels to furniture to a second life in Australia, there are a surprising number of options.

Plane sailing: Air Salvage International is an aviation services firm based at the UK's Cotswolds Airport, where aircraft are dismantled for parts following their retirement.

Dismantling planes: Air Salvage International has dismantled some 730 commercial aircraft: "The average age of the aircraft we scrap is 18 years," managing director Mark Gregory tells CNN Travel.

Waste and recycle: Once an aircraft has been de-registered, it technically becomes waste and has to be processed accordingly. The individual metals, plastics and fluids have to be separated and recycled.

Restoring the old: The French company Tarmac Aerosave is a prominent airplane recycling firm, where planes head to be dismantled and often reinvented.

Skeletons: Tarmac Aerosave keep the skeletons of the aircraft at their facilities at Tarbes and Francazal in southern France and Teruel in eastern Spain.

Future considered: Tarmac sometimes picks planes apart or simply stores them while their future is decided.

Active market: Tarmac engineers removed the engines from this aircraft. "Most of the value is in the engines, but there is an active market for all sort of used parts and spares," says David Treitel, a former executive at Apollo Aviation Group, a Miami-based financial services firm.

Hold onto your seatbelts: Tarmac find inventive uses for reusing and recycling the parts from the airplanes.

Moving metal: This yellow arch at the Tarmac Aerosave facilities at Tarbes has an aircraft fuselage -- a machine that "cold-cuts" metal.

Aircraft hotel: Sometimes aircraft get unusual regenerations. A Boeing 747 at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, pictured, has become a hotel.

Sky high: The grounded jet that has become the Jumbo Stay Hotel offers 33 dorm-style rooms. There's also an extra-special suite in the cockpit.

Aviation-themed: Near Zurich airport, an old Soviet-made Ilyushin Il-14 is the centerpiece of aviation-themed restaurant Runway34.

Unexpected plane sightings: At the Hotel Costa Verde in Costa Rica, you can spend a night in a former Boeing 727, partially submerged in the jungle canopy.

The amazing second lives of aircrafts

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The Boeing then stood in a farmer’s field alongside the A9 highway – no doubt baffling passing drivers – as Mammoet assembled purpose-built roads on which the plane traveled. On the evening of February 8, the aircraft crossed the highway, in what the hotel company called “the most spectacular part of the transport.”

Members of the press watched the Boeing jet make this unusual journey.

The final stage of the journey began on the evening of February 9, when the Boeing crossed one more road before arriving at its new home the next day.

“Transporting a Boeing 747 (in this way), including the wings, has never happened before,” Homoet-Mijnals said. “It’s an exciting but also very difficult project at the same time.”