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The 12-simulator facility is one of two things that United will build as part of Phase 1A at the new site

United Airlines wants to have the first facility on a 113-acre site it purchased near Denver International Airport up and running by fall 2027, according to plans submitted to the city.

The company and ZGF Architects said in a “large development review” document submitted to Denver in late December that “an immediate need exists to establish a new simulator building, supporting approximately 12 full flight simulators” on the site northwest of Tower Road and 64th Avenue.

It’s that building that the company hopes to have operational three-and-a-half years from now.

United announced in August that it had paid $33 million to buy the undeveloped land from Denver-based L.C. Fulenwider Inc.

United already trains pilots in Denver. Its existing flight training center is located on about 22 acres along Quebec Street in Central Park, near where Denver’s Stapleton Airport used to be. That campus is “the primary pilot training facility for United’s global operations” and trains 16,500 pilots annually, according to the document.

The Quebec campus is “projected to grow consistently through 2040,” according to the document. United broke ground in 2022 on a new $100 million facility there that will be fully operational this quarter, United spokesman Russell Carlton told BusinessDen Tuesday. It brings the campus to 44 full-motion flight simulators.

The company, however, is eyeing more growth. United said in the document submitted to Denver it bought the site closer to the existing airport “due to the maximum capacity constraints of the Quebec campus.”
The 12-simulator facility is one of two things that United will build as part of Phase 1A at the new site, according to the document. The other is a central utility plant. The structures will be built on just a fraction of the site, at the corner of 64th and Yampa. Beyond that, “the new flight training center campus will evolve over time,” the company said in the document.

“The complete implementation of Phase 1 is projected to extend beyond 2027, including additional flight training facilities and associated ancillary uses,” the document states. “Concurrently, alongside the FTC, United is actively investigating programmatic needs to support corporate campus activity accommodating 5,000 employees in future phases of the project.”

Denver requires large development review documents be submitted for sites larger than 5 acres.

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World’s Largest Training Center Expanding, Tracking to 2024 Completion

[size=33px] Source: United [/size]AUGUST 14, 2023

MARTY KAUCHAKUnited Airlines’ expansion of its Flight Training Center, already the largest facility of its kind in the world, is on track for an early 2024 completion, Russ Carlton, the airline’s Corporate Communications Manager, Denver Hub, told CAT.

In June 2022, United broke ground on a new four-story building at the facility that will provide more resources to recruit and train the next generation of aviators. The air carrier is on record for a goal to hire an additional 10,000 pilots by 2030. The new four-story building on the 23-acre campus in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood will house 12 additional advanced flight simulators, training classrooms, conference rooms and offices.

United’s Flight Training Center’s additional building will provide the campus with the capability of up to 52 full-motion simulators and 28 fixed-base training devices. Carlton added, “The new building has already received two new full-motion flight simulators, so the current number of full-motion flight simulators at the facility is 42,” and confirmed, “the capacity is for 52 once expansion is complete.”

In terms of trainee throughput and other ROIs from this facility expansion, a corporate document noted United’s campus – seven buildings across 550,000 square feet of training space – is the sole training facility for the airline’s 12,000 active pilots and all newly hired pilots. The document noted, “Every nine months pilots must visit the training center to remain up-to-date on certifications. At any one time, there may be up to 600 pilots training at the facility,” and added, “United expects to add more than 2,000 new pilots this year [2022] alone.”

Of added relevance, the airline plans to train around 5,000 pilots by 2030 through United Aviate Academy, the airline’s own pilot training school.