United Expands World’s Largest Flight Training Center in Denver

Today, United inaugurated a brand-new, 150,000-square-foot facility at its Denver Flight Training Centre.

The airline now has the capacity to expand its facility, which is already the biggest of its kind globally, by adding 12 more state-of-the-art full-motion flight simulators, six of which have already been delivered. Following the hiring of over 2,300 pilots in last year, the airline has hired over 300 pilots thus far in 2024. United’s 16,000 pilots will have even more training space by the new campus facility.

With eight buildings in total, United’s Flight Training Centre boasts over 700,000 square feet of training area and 46 cutting-edge full-motion flight simulators. The airline’s United Next plan is still fueled by these investments in people, infrastructure, and technology.

The 23-acre facility, which is the only training ground for the airline’s approximately 16,000 active pilots and all newly hired pilots, is situated in Denver’s Central Park neighbourhood. In order to keep their credentials, all United pilots must undergo rigorous simulator training with pilot instructors and evaluators at United’s Flight Training Centre in Denver every nine months after completing the original qualification procedure.

New Capabilities

• Currently, United’s Flight Training Center has 46 full-motion flight simulators, including six in the new building, and 21 fixed training devices.
• In addition to the six already in the new building, it has space to add six more full-motion flight simulators.
• The addition of the new building allows for a total of 52 full-motion flight simulators and 34 fixed training devices at the Flight Training Center.
• The new building gives the Flight Training Center the ability to conduct more than 32,000 training events annually and train up to 860 pilots per day.
• The facility is in operation 24 hours a day for 362 days a year.

The new building, in which United invested over $145 million, is anticipated to generate over 370 new employment. At the United Flight Training Centre, almost 1,600 of the company’s 10,000+ Denver-based workers are employed in a variety of departments, including flying instruction, flight evaluation, scheduling, pilot hiring, human resources, and flight standards.