$3 billion Emirates Air Hotel in Dubai with A380 atop 580m tower: Here’s the real story

Dubai: A spectacular video showing Emirates airline's proposed “Dubai Air Hotel” featuring a full-scale Airbus A380 mounted atop a 580m, 125-storey tower has taken the internet by storm, amassing over 36 million views and sparking widespread excitement and news reports.

The video shows a futuristic luxury destination that appears to perfectly match Dubai's reputation for ambitious, record-breaking architecture. And news reports have quoted an elaborate concept that depicts what would be one of the world's tallest hotels, with an estimated development cost of around $3 billion.

But is the hotel dubbed "the wildest" by a hospitality news outlet real? Here's what Gulf News discovered.

When contacted by Gulf News, Emirates confirmed that the viral video is not based on any actual plans.

"We are aware of a video circulating on social media depicting an Emirates Air Hotel. Emirates confirms it is fabricated content and untrue," the airline said in a statement.

Despite millions of views and coverage on multiple online publications, the project exists only in the digital realm. It is created entirely using artificial intelligence (AI).

Gulf News traced the viral sensation back to its source: an AI-generated video first posted on the Instagram handle cypriot.ai on August 21.

The sophisticated computer-generated imagery depicts the ambitious project with a caption reading: "Imagine a 7-star hotel floating above Dubai, suspended between sky and city, redefining what luxury truly means. This is where aviation becomes architecture and imagination turns into experience. The future of luxury travel doesn't wait on the ground—it takes flight."

It is not clear if the description was edited and cut short because recent news reports based on it have quoted many more details including the number of floors, the height of the tower and the estimated cost.

The video seems to have gained modest attention from online media outlets with its August posting where the plane perched on top only named Emirates. However, when it was reposted a few days ago with the plane featuring the name “Dubai Air Hotel,” it was picked up by online news outlets.

Several factors made the fictional project seem credible to millions of viewers.

An architecture news website reported that "if built to the proposed height, the Emirates Air Hotel would surpass many of the world's tallest hotels and further reinforce Dubai's reputation for record-breaking architecture and large-scale tourism projects."

Ciel Dubai Marina now holds the official Guinness World Record as the world’s tallest hotel. The 82-storey building stands at 377. 127m

The publication claimed that developers had positioned the Emirates’s Air Hotel concept as a combined luxury hotel, observation destination and aviation-themed experience.

“As of now, the project remains at the proposal and reporting stage, with no confirmed construction timeline or official launch date announced by Emirates or Dubai authorities. Further details are expected if the development moves forward,” it stated.

Meanwhile, a travel news website suggested that "this proposed development could revolutionise not just the skyline but also the future of luxury hospitality itself."

While such claims might seem outlandish elsewhere, they appear remarkably plausible in Dubai, a city that has consistently turned seemingly impossible architectural visions into reality.

From the world's tallest building to palm-shaped islands and indoor ski slopes in the desert land, Dubai has built its reputation on making ambitious dreams come true. This track record is precisely what made the fictional Emirates Air Hotel seem believable to millions.

From the world's tallest building to palm-shaped islands and indoor ski slopes in the desert land, Dubai has built its reputation on making ambitious dreams come true. This track record is precisely what made the fictional Emirates Air Hotel seem believable to millions.

Also, in June this year, Emirates' President Sir Tim Clark teased a future for the city that is almost hard to imagine.

"I dare say there are other things that are going to come along that are bigger and more beautiful than Burj Khalifa – we don't know," he said.

Such statements from Dubai's key figures only add to the sense that virtually anything is possible in the emirate.

This is not the first AI-generated video of Emirates that has been posted on the cypriot.ai page. Another video posted in November shows Emirates bringing Christmas cheer aboard an aircraft wrapped in Santa's red fur-trimmed coat.

The creator of the original AI video has also posted several other AI-generated viral concept videos linked to Dubai, including those of "the world's largest ice skating rink at the base of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Frame ski paradise, a Labubu tower, a Titanic ship hotel, a theatre shaped like a camel, a floating glass hotel, and a 7-star Bugatti hotel" among others.

While most of the videos seem to remain only in imagination, a video featuring a fashion week in the sky where women wearing Dior haute couture gowns parachute above Dubai landmarks could make one recall the recent airship swing stunt of the lady in red shared by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council.

However, the posts and reports of the Air Hotel now serve as a stark reminder of how sophisticated AI-generated content can blur the lines between imagination and reality in an era where extraordinary projects have become Dubai's trademark.