Master Suites, Majlis and an Operating Table: The Most Unusual Rooms on VIP Jets

The U.S. Air Force's VC-25A, the Boeing 747 that becomes Air Force One when the President is aboard, has a medical suite that can function as an operating room, and a doctor is on board for every flight. Few rooms on any aircraft are better documented: the Air Force publishes the details in a fact sheet.

That is the exception. Most of the extraordinary rooms said to exist on private airliners are known through brochures, renderings, completion-centre press releases and second-hand accounts. Sorting them comes down to one test: whether anyone outside the owner's circle has actually seen them.

Verified, reported, rendered

JetAtlas's Hangar talk section grades aviation stories by evidence, from true through plausible and unverified to false. Cabin interiors fall into three rough bands of their own:

• Verified. Described by the operator, the manufacturer or the completion centre that built it, often with photographs. The VC-25A's medical suite, a BBJ's cinema projector and a Global 8000's bedroom all belong here.
• Reported. Described by journalists or insiders, but never fully shown or confirmed by the owner. The Sultan of Brunei's 747 sits here: its gold-plated fittings are widely documented, while claims of solid-gold basins are not. See the Hangar talk verdict.
• Rendered. Designs that were drawn and published but never built. The most famous is the Airbus A380 flying palace described below.

The master suite

Nearly every VIP airliner has one: a bedroom at the rear with a large bed, a dressing area and an en-suite bathroom. Completion centres publish enough to confirm the pattern.

• Jet Aviation's Basel centre announced in 2015 a BBJ3, based on the stretched 737-900ER, with a master bedroom and custom bathroom with shower, a cinema lounge, a dining area for six and a majlis. Delivery was planned for the first quarter of 2016.
• AMAC Aerospace, also in Basel, redelivered a Boeing 777-300ER BBJ in 2013 after 18 months of work, with a master bedroom, master en-suite and majlis, and colour-changing mood lighting in domed ceilings.
• VIP Completions' 2024 BBJ refurbishment put an en-suite master stateroom at the rear and a room that doubles as conference room and guest bedroom in mid-cabin, and took 90 hands-on days.

The majlis is the room outsiders least expect. It is the traditional Gulf reception room, a seating area for receiving guests, and it features in both the Jet Aviation and AMAC announcements above, much as a boardroom would on a corporate jet.

Offices, boardrooms and dining rooms

The most common unusual room is also the least glamorous: somewhere to work. On Air Force One there is a presidential office and a conference room that was originally designed as a situation room and is now used for meetings with staff. On private aircraft, the conference table usually doubles as the dining table. The Comlux ACJ330 has a dining area; the Jet Aviation BBJ3 seats six for dinner.

Cinemas, gyms and screens

• The forward lounge of VIP Completions' BBJ has a built-in movie projector and a screen that stows away.
• Comlux's first widebody completion, an ACJ330 delivered in 2019 for up to 31 passengers, includes a gym room and an entertainment area built around a 52-inch curved OLED monitor.
• The Jet Aviation BBJ3 has a cinema lounge.

Medical rooms and prayer rooms

Outside Air Force One, medical rooms are hard to document. Government VIP aircraft are often said to carry medical equipment, but operators rarely publish details and completion centres seldom mention them in delivery announcements. Any specific description of a private flying hospital is best treated as reported until the operator shows it.

Prayer rooms are in the same position. They are frequently mentioned in descriptions of Gulf-owned airliners but rarely appear in published completion details. The best-known design that included one was never built.

The palace that never was

In 2007 Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia ordered an Airbus A380, the first private order for the type. What followed was a set of images that still circulates as if it were real. A concept by Design Q with Edese Doret Industrial Design showed a garage for cars, a marble Turkish bath, a concert hall with a grand piano, conference rooms with holographic tables, a prayer room and five master suites. Business Jet Traveler reported in 2008 that the plan would provide about 6,000 square feet of usable space over two decks and what was believed to be the first Jacuzzi certified for flight.

None of it was built. The order was abandoned, the aircraft never received a VIP interior, and no privately configured A380 has ever flown. Forbes later described it as a jumbo jet the prince never really bought.

The room on this list that nobody disputes is also the plainest: a medical suite on a 747 delivered in 1990, with a doctor aboard for every flight.

Sources

• U.S. Air Force fact sheet: VC-25 Air Force One
• Airbus: ACJ350
• Corporate Jet Investor: Jet Aviation Basel signs VIP BBJ3 completion
• Corporate Jet Investor: Comlux delivers its first VIP widebody cabin completion
• VIP Completions: comprehensive Boeing Business Jet refurbishment
• Simple Flying: the Airbus A380 palace, the plane that never was