The plane to be renovated into a hotel is a Saab 340B, which crashed in Savonlinna at the beginning of 2019. The plane was damaged beyond flight and was auctioned last October.
The passenger plane stands firmly on top of the hill in Uuraini. The view is special and unique. The Saab 340B is 20 meters long and the wingspan is a little over 20 meters.
The plane was put into use in March 1991, when it was owned by the Swiss company Crossair. From Switzerland, the plane moved to Romania, after which it flew under the ownership of two different Ukrainian companies. The last owner was Latvian RAF-Avia.
The plane flew its last flight in January 2019. At that time, it drifted off the snowy runway in Savonlinna and was so badly damaged that it was found unfit to fly.
– I immediately sent a message to Oskar that there would be such a possibility. It would be nice to be able to build it, says Kivelä.
– We ended up buying it. It was quickly clear that it would be suitable for accommodation use, says Moisio, who is already familiar with the accommodation and real estate industry. As well as for others who joined the project.
Things happened quickly and in November the plane was transported to Uurai. In Savonlinna, it had been disassembled into two parts, the wings and the body.
– It was brought here on two pallets as a special transport. It was quite a job, Kivelä recalls.
Before the arrival of the aircraft, earthwork was done on the hill to support the weight of the aircraft.
– Excavated, soil has been changed and gravel has been brought in, Kivelä continues.
All aviation-related technology, such as engines, has been removed from the plane. There are a few benches in the passenger compartment and the cockpit lacks, among other things, gauges.
Viisiko’s vision is that the plane itself will have accommodation, a lounge area and a sauna. An additional building will be built next to the plane, which will have more accommodation, a kitchen, a sauna and a terrace.
However, the exact plans are alive, and work has not started yet. And it probably won’t start during the winter.
– All ideas that come up for it are tried to be implemented. This will be a project that looks like its creators, says Oskari Moisio.
The entrepreneurs’ goal is to have the whole completed by Christmas 2023 at the latest.
There has never been anything like the Uurainen airplane hotel in Finland. The closest is a hotel built from a Boeing 747 airplane, located next to Stockholm Airport Arlanda.