I was in Denver yesterday for the ceremony marking completion of the first phase of United Airlines’ expanded Flight Training Center, and the scale of the operation is impressive: nearly 700,000 square feet, 86 training devices, and the ability to train as many as 860 pilots every day.
Inside United Airlines’ Massive Denver Pilot Training Center Expansion
United Airlines and CAE officially marked completion of the first phase of a major expansion of United’s Flight Training Center in Denver on Thursday, and I was there for the ceremony.
United says the facility is now the largest pilot training center in the world, spanning nearly 700,000 square feet across eight buildings on a 22-acre campus in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood.
The numbers are staggering:
- 52 full-motion flight simulators
- 34 fixed training devices
- 86 total training devices
- More than 32,000 training events annually
- Capacity to train up to 860 pilots per day
- Nearly 18,000 active United pilots who cycle through the facility
And United is not finished.
United Has Added 40 Training Devices Since 2022
The expansion was completed in partnership with CAE, the Canadian aviation training company that supplies many of the simulators and other training devices United uses. Since 2022, United has added 40 new CAE training devices to the Denver campus.
CEO Scott Kirby was joined at the ceremony by CAE President and CEO Matthew Bromberg, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, and other United and local leaders.
Kirby made his usual remarks about United behind a “100-year-old carrier that’s really a six-year-old startup” and pointed out that it was not just aircraft that United bought during the depths of the pandemic when every other carrier was shrinking: it was these (very expensive) simulators as well.
Hickenlooper, who is a very nice man I got to speak to after the event, played the role of the politician well, thanking United for its investment in Colorado, but also beckoning other carriers to come too.
The center operates 24 hours a day, 362 days a year.
Every newly hired United pilot trains here, while existing pilots return for recurrent simulator training every nine months to maintain their qualifications…every United pilot eventually passes through Denver.
The Scale Is Hard To Appreciate Until You See It
I had not visited United’s Denver training facility before and the continued expansion is remarkable.
Walking through the buildings, you see row after row of full-motion simulators representing aircraft across United’s fleet. These are not simple cockpit mockups. The simulators replicate aircraft motion, systems failures, weather, airports, and countless abnormal situations that pilots hopefully never encounter in the real airplane.
They also cost millions of dollars apiece.
The expanded campus is roughly the size of 12 football fields, and more than 1,600 United employees work there across 24 departments, including flight instruction, evaluation, scheduling, pilot hiring, human resources, and flight standards.
United has invested $370 million in the Flight Training Center since 2016, including more than $145 million in the newest building that opened in 2024. United says it spent nearly $40 million on Denver hotel rooms for visiting pilots in 2025 and expects that figure to approach $50 million in 2026 (something Hickenlooper also thanked United for).
And United says it already needs more room.
In July, the Denver City Council approved rezoning for two parcels of land United purchased near Denver International Airport in 2023. United plans to break ground on the next phase of its training-center expansion in 2027, with the new facility expected to become operational around 2030.
The additional campus will operate alongside the existing Central Park facility rather than replace it.
United has nearly 18,000 pilots today and has hired more than 9,500 since announcing its United Next growth strategy in 2021. The airline says it has already hired about 700 pilots in 2026 and expects to hire hundreds more before the year is over (as pilots hit mandatory retirement age at 65, this becomes necessary).
With hundreds of new aircraft still scheduled for delivery in the years ahead, the training infrastructure has to grow along with the fleet.
Denver Has Become Increasingly Important To United
The ceremony demonstrated how important Denver has become to United. Denver is now United’s fastest-growing hub. The carrier operates an airport-leading average of roughly 570 daily departures from DEN this summer to more than 200 destinations, including more than 20 international destinations.
United says it has invested nearly $1 billion in Denver since 2021, including new gates, a new check-in lobby, and new United Clubs, including the largest club in its network. The airline hired more than 1,400 people in Denver last year and plans to hire another 1,300 in 2026, bringing its local workforce above 11,400 employees.
The training center itself also has deep roots in Denver: it was originally constructed between 1966 and 1968 as part of the old Stapleton Airport complex and has served as United’s primary pilot training center ever since. Stapleton closed more than three decades ago, but United stayed….
Now the site that once sat alongside Denver’s airport has become an enormous aviation training campus surrounded by a neighborhood that barely resembles the airport environment that once occupied the area.
Oh and interesting note: both Kirby and Toby Enqvist, United’s Global Chief Information Officer, hinted that a new longhaul route from Denver will be announced next week. I’ll say more about that in a separate post.
And one more interesting note: Kirby was asked if United was moving corporate headquarters to Denver (using that same parcel of land I mentioned above). He denied it, saying there were no plans to move from Chicago.
CONCLUSION
United has completed the first phase of its latest Flight Training Center expansion in Denver, creating a nearly 700,000-square-foot campus with 86 training devices and capacity for up to 860 pilots per day.
I enjoyed attending the ceremony and seeing the facility again firsthand…I enjoyed even more piloting a simulator, which I’ll say more about tomorrow.
Most passengers will never see this side of an airline, but it is one of the most important investments United makes, since you cannot grow a fleet without training the pilots who fly them. And with another expansion already planned, United clearly expects to need a lot more of them…
Just for clarity, obviously you were invited to the event but did you pay for your own travel and hotel? You are usually great in stating this which is why your reviews are respected and not some paid shill stuff like others in the industry.