Dublin Airport is to get a €100 million investment in a new terminal-linked hotel that will create up to 550 jobs on campus.

As part of an agreement with daa, UK hotel group Arora has lodged a planning application for a new 410-bedroom luxury hotel adjacent to Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport.

Arora currently owns and operates 12 hotels including 10 airport hotels. It has more than 5,000 bedrooms in the greater London area, including at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. The new Dublin Airport hotel, which will have at least a four-star rating, is Arora’s first move into the Irish market.

Following a public tender process, daa concluded an agreement with Arora for it to design and build, finance and operate a new hotel on a site just in front of the existing Terminal 2 car park. The new hotel, which Arora will operate under a yet to be announced global brand, will be one of the largest hotels in Ireland. Under the agreement with daa, the hotel will be operated by Arora for 100 years and ownership will then revert to daa.

Subject to planning, Arora intends to begin construction of the new hotel later this year or in the first quarter of next year. The project is expected to have a 24-30 month construction phase, meaning the hotel is likely to open in 2024. Up to 300 construction jobs will be created during the works and the hotel will employ approximately 250 staff when it opens.

The 11-storey hotel, will have a total floor area of 30,566 square metres, and will feature meeting rooms, a leisure centre with a gym, steam room, sauna and jacuzzi on the third floor, and a penthouse bar and executive lounge area on the top floor.

The new property will be the first terminal-linked hotel at Dublin Airport. Terminal-linked hotels offer an enhanced service for passengers, as they remove the need for surface transport to and from the airport and also bring additional certainty in terms of time management. They can also offer additional efficiencies for airlines, as crew who require rest periods don’t have to add transfer time to and from the airport.

Typically, the average room occupancy levels and room rates of terminal-linked hotels is higher than for other hotels on an airport campus or in the environs of the airport due to the significant convenience factor of being located beside the terminal building.