Get hitched on an iconic British Airways Negus 747 aircraft
Forget the mile-high club… romance has literally taken a front seat on this Negus 747. Now you can get married in its cockpit.
The retired British Airways plane has been converted into a wedding venue and party plane among other things, thanks to a more than half a million-dollar makeover.
Suzannah Harvey, chief executive of the privately-owned Cotswold Airport, in Gloucestershire, bought the craft from BA for £1 (around $1.30) back in October 2020.
She then spent the next 14 months kitting it out with disco lights, a dance floor, a bar, a giant TV screen and everything else you'd expect from a more than $1,000-per-hour entertainment space.
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"It's a very versatile events facility, so it can accommodate anything from a kid's birthday party, through to a new product launch or a corporate presentation," Harvey told CNN
To get married aboard the plane will set you back about $16,000 (£12,000) for 24 hours, including set up and breakdown times. "The whole of the aircraft has a wedding license," says Harvey. "So you can get married in the cockpit if you want."
Harvey got the idea after a number of retired 747s arrived at her airport to be stripped for parts by Air Salvage International — one of the U.K.'s leading "aircraft undertakers" that happens to be based at Cotswolds Airport.
She took the idea to BA and, after six weeks of fine-print negotiations, persuaded the company to part with the former flagship.
The deal rested on her promise to keep the plane in good condition, while keeping most of its original structure, including its iconic Negus livery.
This particular plane had, after all, been with BA since 1994. In 16 years, it has flown nearly 60 million miles across 13,398 flights. Its last passenger flight was from Miami to Heathrow in April 2020.
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BA's plan to phase out its fleet of Negus 747s, which enjoyed their heyday through the 1990s, was expedited by the COVID-19 downturn.
Known as "Queen of the Skies" and popular among AvGeeks, the "fuel-hungry" Boeing jet has fallen out of favor of late as airlines switch to smaller and more efficient passenger planes.
Harvey says interest has gone through the roof, and bookings already include a wedding this spring, the filming of a Netflix documentary and numerous parties for the summer.
On top of events, Cotswold Airport will be opening up for tours from March, which visitors will be able to book through a soon-to-launched app. Booking inquiries can also be made via Instagram.
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