United Airlines is expanding its Flight Training Center as the airline seeks to hire an additional 10,000 pilots by 2030. The airline will add a new four-story building on the 23-acre campus in Denver’s Central Park neighbourhood that will house 12 additional advanced flight simulators, training classrooms, conference rooms and offices. The expansion project is expected to be completed before the end of 2023.
United’s campus – seven buildings, across 550,000 ft² of training space – is the sole training facility for the airline’s 12,000 active pilots and all newly hired pilots. Every nine months pilots must visit the training centre to remain up to date on certifications. At any one time, there may be up to 600 pilots training at the facility.
United’s Flight Training Center campus currently has 39 full-motion flight simulators and 15 fixed training devices – the additional building means United will soon be capable of having a total of 52 full-motion simulators and 28 fixed training devices.
United expects to add more than 2,000 new pilots this year alone and is on track to hire 10,000 pilots by 2030. The airline plans to train around 5,000 pilots by that date through United Aviate Academy, the airline’s own pilot training school. United’s goal is to have at least half of the pilots trained at the United Aviate Academy be women or people of colour.
