Airport Hotels: From TWA to Jewel Changi, a New Travel Trend

Airport hotels have evolved into destinations themselves, offering luxury and cultural experiences. The TWA Hotel at New York's JFK Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen in 1962, is a restored terminal listed on the National Register of Historic Places, featuring red carpets, modernist phones, a rooftop pool, a Jean-Georges restaurant, and a cocktail bar inside a 1958 Lockheed Constellation, with exhibitions curated by the New York Historical Society. Singapore's Jewel Changi Airport, a techno-green project by Moshe Safdie, features the Rain Vortex, the world's tallest indoor waterfall, and the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport, which won best airport hotel for the ninth time in 2024. The Fairmont Vancouver Airport offers bicycles for nearby cycling trails. The Dubai International Hotel provides access to the Museum of the Future and Burj Khalifa. In Italy, the Sheraton Milan Malpensa, designed by King & Roselli, offers packages including tickets to the ADI Design Museum. Skytrax's top European airport hotels include Hilton properties in Munich, Schiphol, and Frankfurt, plus YotelAir in Istanbul, Paris, and London. The new Moxy Luxembourg Airport, designed by Vanessa Thulliez, is in the Skypark Business Center, one of Europe's largest wooden buildings, with a cocktail bar and pétanque court.