United Airlines Unveils New Training Facility

United has just broke ground on a new 140,000-square-foot Ground Service Equipment (GSE) Maintenance Facility at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and is opening a new Technical Operations Training Center at the airport that will give employees a new training experience.

United expects the new $177 million GSE maintenance facility to open in 2027 – it will support the airline's fleet of more than 1,800 ground service vehicles and give United's Ground Service Equipment maintenance team, comprised of more than 130 employees, even more resources to perform critical tasks like charging batteries, fabricating metal, and monitoring electronic controls with improved infrastructure and modernized workspaces.

The new, $16 million Tech Ops Training Center (TTC) will support the airline's plan to take delivery of hundreds of new planes by 2032 and the 91,000-square-foot facility includes sheet metal and composite training shops, desktop simulators, as well as scenario-based engine maintenance and inspection trainings.

Additionally, the new Training Center will house a $6.3 million Move Team Facility, strategically designed to centralize United's Super Tug operations. United's IAH Move Team manages over 15 Super Tugs across the airfield, moving hundreds of aircraft daily to support flight departures, remote parking areas, and Technical Operations Hangars. This significant investment in both the Tech Ops Training Center and Move Team operations bolsters the airline's growth under the United Next strategy. United Next includes plans to introduce more than 500 new, narrow-body aircraft into its fleet, increase the total number of available seats per domestic departure by nearly 30%, dramatically reduce carbon emissions per seat, and create tens of thousands of high-quality, unionized jobs by 2026.

"By opening our Tech Ops Training Center, we are setting a new industry standard for real world and specialized training opportunities for United technicians," said Maria Deacon, Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at United. "We're also extremely pleased to break ground on a new GSE maintenance facility which will revolutionize our capacity to maintain our fleet of ground service equipment for decades to come."

The Technical Operations Training Facility boasts sheet metal and composite training shops, desktop simulators where technicians can learn aspects of Boeing 737 and 787 troubleshooting, as well as scenario-based engine maintenance trainings, such as specialized aspects of aircraft maintenance, like borescope and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) engine inspections. The TTC allows technicians to train on simulators and specific aircraft components in a shop environment, rather than in a traditional classroom only environment. Hands-on instruction in these skills increases knowledge retention and an enhanced learning experience without taking aircraft out of service.