United Expands Training Base

On Thursday, United Airlines celebrated the opening of its new 150,000-square-foot facility at its Flight Training Center in Denver—expanding on what the airline calls the largest training center of its kind.    

The new building allows for significant expansion, accommodating an additional 12 advanced full-motion flight simulators, six of which have already been installed. Additionally, it will allow more training capacity for the airline’s 16,000 pilots. 

United’s Flight Training Center now has eight total buildings and more than 700,000 square feet of training space and houses 46 full-motion flight simulators, according to the airline’s press release. The addition of the new building brings the Flight Training Center’s capacity to 52 full-motion flight simulators and 34 fixed training devices, totaling 86 units. 

CEO Scott Kirby was accompanied by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to commemorate the opening of the building. "We're growing faster than any airline in the industry and our investments in our pilots and their training are critical to support the unprecedented number of new aircraft United will add to our fleet in the decades ahead," said Kirby. "United pilots are the best aviators in the world and the way we recruit, hire and train directly supports that high standard of excellence." United’s new facility will help the airline keep pace with demand for pilot training after hiring more than 2,300 pilots last year and more than 300 in 2024 to date. The new building will allow the flight training center to train up to 860 pilots per day.