by Sarah Kuta
Last updated: 9:45 AM ET, Sat February 24, 2024
United Airlines' flight training center in Denver was already the largest facility of its kind in the world. Now, the airline has made it even bigger, adding a new 150,000-square-foot building to its 23-acre campus in the Mile High City.
The facility now offers more than 700,000 square feet of training space spread across eight total buildings.
The $145 million expansion will allow United to train more pilots, including the more than 300 the airline has hired so far in 2024. Last year, United brought on 2,300 pilots.
The company also expects the new building to lead to more than 370 new jobs.
"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," says Scott Kirby, United’s chief executive officer. "United pilots are the best aviators in the world and the way we recruit, hire and train directly supports that high standard of excellence."
The new building will allow United to add 12 additional full-motion flight simulators to the campus, as well as 13 additional fixed training devices.
Once all of the new equipment is installed, pilots will be able to train on 52 full-motion flight simulators and 34 fixed training devices. Up to 860 pilots will be able to train at the facility each day, for a total of more than 32,000 training events per year.
The campus, open 24 hours a day for 362 days a year in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood, is United’s only training facility. All United pilots undergo training in Denver when they join the company. Then, every nine months, the airline’s nearly 16,000 active pilots return to the Mile High City to keep up their certifications.
All that training helps generate economic activity for Denver. For example, last year, United spent more than $44 million on hotel rooms for pilots visiting the city for training. In 2024, that number is expected to reach more than $65 million.
The Chicago-based airline plans to continue growing its presence in Denver, too. Though the existing flight training center is maxed out for space and cannot grow any further, the airline plans to add more training capacity near Denver International Airport. Last summer, United spent $33 million on 113 acres of undeveloped land near the airport, where it plans to build additional flight training facilities by 2028.
More broadly, United has in recent years invested nearly $1 billion in Denver, which is its fastest-growing hub. The airline built new gates, a new check-in lobby and new United clubs at the Denver airport, including its largest club ever.
The company hired more than 2,500 people in the Mile High City in 2023, and plans to bring on an additional 1,000 people in Denver this year. This summer, it’s operating 40 new flights from Denver, for a total of more than 500 daily departures.
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