United Airlines has completed the first phase of a major expansion at its Denver Flight Training Center, pushing the facility’s simulator fleet to 86 training devices and giving it the capacity to train up to 860 pilots each day. The nearly 700,000-square-foot complex now ranks as the world’s largest pilot training facility.
It operates around the clock and supports United’s growing pilot workforce through repeated simulator-based training. The expansion added 40 CAE-built training devices since 2022. Those include full-motion simulators that replicate aircraft movement and fixed devices designed for specific training tasks.
86 devices, one training hub
United now operates 52 full-motion flight simulators alongside 34 fixed training devices. Together, they can support more than 32,000 training events each year. Pilots use the facility during their initial qualification process. They also return for recurrent simulator sessions every nine months to maintain their certifications.
That creates a demanding operational schedule. The center runs 24 hours a day for 362 days each year, allowing United to cycle pilots through training without slowing its broader flight operations…