United Airlines has completed the first phase of a multi-year expansion at its Denver Flight Training Center, adding 40 new CAE flight simulators to what the airline describes as the largest pilot training facility in the world.
With the additions in place, the centre now operates 86 CAE training devices in total: 52 full-motion flight simulators and 34 fixed training devices. The 22-acre campus, in Denver's Central Park neighbourhood, comprises eight buildings and roughly 700,000 square feet (about 65,000 square metres) of training space.
860 pilots a day, 362 days a year
United says the expanded centre can train as many as 860 pilots per day and host more than 32,000 training events each year. The facility runs around the clock for 362 days a year and is the airline's only pilot training site, serving close to 18,000 active pilots as well as newly hired flight crews. United pilots complete simulator sessions during initial qualification and return to Denver for recurrent training every nine months.
The expansion is the product of a long-running relationship with Canadian simulator manufacturer CAE. "This expansion reflects the strength of a partnership built over more than four decades," CAE President and Chief Executive Matthew Bromberg said. "We're proud to support United with the training technology, expertise and reliability needed to prepare pilots at scale."
A $145 million building block
The project began in 2022 and included a new 150,000-square-foot building that opened on the campus in 2024. United has invested more than $145 million in that facility alone, which was designed to absorb additional full-motion simulators, fixed training devices, classrooms and support areas. Across the wider campus, the airline says it has committed $370 million since 2016.
The work has created more than 300 additional jobs at the training centre. Around 1,600 of United's more than 11,400 Denver-based employees now work there in roles spanning flight instruction, evaluation, scheduling, pilot hiring and flight standards.
The site itself long predates the current investment. The training centre was originally constructed between 1966 and 1968 as part of the former Stapleton Airport complex, and it has served as United's main pilot training base ever since.
A second Denver campus is already planned
United is not finished in Denver. The airline is preparing a further expansion near Denver International Airport, on two parcels of undeveloped land it purchased in 2023. Denver City Council approved a rezoning request for those parcels in July 2026. United expects construction on the next phase to begin in 2027, with the additional training facility entering service by 2030 and operating alongside the existing Central Park campus.
The scale of the investment tracks the scale of United's hiring. The airline says it has taken on more than 9,500 pilots since announcing its United Next growth strategy, and every one of them passes through Denver. Simulator capacity is one of the least visible constraints on airline growth: an operator can order aircraft years in advance, but it cannot put them into service faster than it can qualify and recurrently check the crews to fly them. Adding 40 devices in a single phase is, in that sense, a capacity decision as much as a training one.
Recurrent training every nine months across nearly 18,000 pilots also creates a permanent, non-negotiable demand on the building β one that grows in step with the roster. That is the logic behind breaking ground on a second Denver site before the first has fully settled.
Sources: Simple Flying, AeroTime. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Marco Bianchi.
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