World’s Largest Training Center Expanding, Tracking to 2024 Completion

United Airlines’ expansion of its Flight Training Center, already the largest facility of its kind in the world, is on track for an early 2024 completion, Russ Carlton, the airline’s Corporate Communications Manager, Denver Hub, told CAT.

In June 2022, United broke ground on a new four-story building at the facility that will provide more resources to recruit and train the next generation of aviators. The air carrier is on record for a goal to hire an additional 10,000 pilots by 2030. The new four-story building on the 23-acre campus in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood will house 12 additional advanced flight simulators, training classrooms, conference rooms and offices.

United’s Flight Training Center’s additional building will provide the campus with the capability of up to 52 full-motion simulators and 28 fixed-base training devices. Carlton added, “The new building has already received two new full-motion flight simulators, so the current number of full-motion flight simulators at the facility is 42,” and confirmed, “the capacity is for 52 once expansion is complete.”

In terms of trainee throughput and other ROIs from this facility expansion, a corporate document noted United’s campus – seven buildings across 550,000 square feet of training space – is the sole training facility for the airline’s 12,000 active pilots and all newly hired pilots. The document noted, “Every nine months pilots must visit the training center to remain up-to-date on certifications. At any one time, there may be up to 600 pilots training at the facility,” and added, “United expects to add more than 2,000 new pilots this year [2022] alone.”

Of added relevance, the airline plans to train around 5,000 pilots by 2030 through United Aviate Academy, the airline’s own pilot training school.