United Airlines announces expansion of its flight training facility

On Thursday, United Airlines inaugurated a novel 150,000-square-foot annex to its Flight Training Center in the Central Park district of Denver.

United Airlines has inaugurated a brand-new, 150,000-square-foot facility at its Denver Flight Training Center this week. The airline can now 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.

According to the airline, the facility comprises eight buildings, over 700,000 square feet of training area, 21 fixed-training devices, and 46 full-motion flight simulators.

Twelve simulators may now be accommodated by the $145 million addition, six of which have already been delivered. According to the airline, the new facility can train up to 240 extra pilots daily. As per the airline, around 370 new jobs will be created through the training center.

Encompassing 23 acres, the Denver site is the exclusive training ground for all newly hired pilots and the airline's almost 16,000 active pilots.

According to the airline, to keep their credentials current, all United Airline pilots must undergo rigorous simulator training with pilot instructors and evaluators during the initial qualifying process and every nine months after that.

Originally constructed in the 1960s as part of the Stapleton Airport complex, the Flight Training Center employs over 1,600 of United's 10,000 Denver-based workers.