United Airlines has completed the first phase of a major 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.
The additions are a mix of full-motion flight simulators and fixed training devices. United now operates 52 full-motion simulators and 34 fixed devices at the centre, giving it 86 training devices in total across the site.
A 22-acre campus built for scale
The campus sits on 22 acres in Denver's Central Park neighbourhood and comprises eight buildings with nearly 700,000 square feet of training space. United says the facility can train as many as 860 pilots per day and host more than 32,000 training events a year, operating around the clock for 362 days of the year.
It is United's only pilot training facility. Nearly 18,000 active pilots are served by the centre, along with newly hired flight crews. Pilots complete simulator sessions during initial qualification and return to Denver for recurrent training every nine months, which means the building sees essentially every United pilot on a rolling cycle.
The expansion has been running for several years. United opened a new 150,000-square-foot building on the campus in 2024 as part of the project, which began in 2022. The airline invested more than $145 million in that work, designed to accommodate additional full-motion simulators, fixed training devices, classrooms and support areas, and the project has created more than 300 additional jobs at the centre. Roughly 1,600 of United's more than 11,400 Denver-based employees now work at the training centre in roles including flight instruction, evaluation, scheduling, pilot hiring and flight standards.
In total, United says it has invested $370 million in the campus since 2016. The site itself is considerably older: it was originally constructed between 1966 and 1968 as part of the former Stapleton Airport complex, and has been the airline's main pilot training base ever since.
CAE's four-decade partnership
"This expansion reflects the strength of a partnership built over more than four decades," said CAE President and CEO Matthew Bromberg. "We're proud to support United with the training technology, expertise and reliability needed to prepare pilots at scale."
A second training site is already planned
United is not stopping in Central Park. The airline is preparing another expansion near Denver International Airport (DEN). Denver City Council approved a rezoning request in July 2026 covering two parcels of undeveloped land that United purchased in 2023. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with the additional facility entering operation by 2030 and running alongside the existing campus.
The build-out tracks the airline's hiring. United has hired more than 9,500 pilots since announcing its United Next growth strategy in 2021, added approximately 700 pilots during the first part of 2026, and plans to hire hundreds more before the end of the year. Alongside the Denver centre, the carrier runs its Aviate pilot career programme and the United Aviate Academy in Goodyear, Arizona, as well as a pathway for active-duty US military pilots. Nearly 600 military pilots have joined United through that route since 2024, with another 500 expected to make the transition by the end of 2027.
Sources: AeroTime, Simple Flying. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
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