Summary
- United Airlines to open a new flight attendant training center near Washington Dulles.
- The training center will cater to cabin crew based at Dulles, Reagan National Airport, and BWI Marshall Airport.
- The carrier has also invested in other training centers in the US in recent months.
United Airlines is investing in another training center, this time close to Washington Dulles International Airport, where it has a huge presence. The carrier also has other such facilities in the country where it trains its flight crew for various procedures.
New training center
United Airlines
will soon have another training center for its flight attendants near Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD). According to the Washington Business Journal, the airline is preparing to open a 20,000-square-foot facility at 14109 Park Meadow Dr. in Chantilly, a few miles south of the airport.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
There has been no official statement from the airline regarding this, but the Washington Business Journal’s report states that the center will meet the training needs of cabin crew members based at Dulles, Reagan National Airport, and BWI Marshall Airport.
The center will have classrooms, mock airplane cabins and aircraft door training stations to simulate real-life emergency situations and evacuations as well. It will be similar to what the carrier has in other training centers in Chicago and Houston.
Big presence at Washington Dulles
Washington Dulles International Airport
is an important hub for United Airlines, which has been serving the capital region for more than 50 years. United serves customers out of Washington to many domestic and global destinations, including several capital-to-capital services around dozens of airports worldwide.
Along with United Express, the carrier operates around 220 daily flights out of IAD, more than 130 of which are United Regional operations. The carrier has 26 daily flights to more than 30 international destinations from Washington Dulles, including 14 in Europe, two in Asia, 13 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and four in Canada.
Photo: Kristi Blokhin | Shutterstock
The new training facility in Washington is expected to serve the carrier well. United has over 5,500 employees in the Washington metro area, including many flight attendants. Annually, it serves around 7 million passengers there, at an average of 19,000 daily.
Investment in training centers
Like all airlines, United is required to routinely train its flight crew for emergency situations and other procedures, and for that, it has invested in several training centers across the country. In February this year, it was reported that
United had expanded its flight training center in Denver
by about 150,000 square feet.
The carrier added six more flight simulators to the facility, which it claimed was the largest flight training center in the world. The expansion of the building allowed space for a total of 52 simulators, and the facility is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Photo: United Airlines
United also
renovated its flight attendant training center in Houston
, doubling the size of the facility. The project cost $32 million and was meant to accommodate the growing strength of United Cabin Crew members amid an uptick in hiring.
While United had initially planned to hire around 13,000 to 15,000 employees in 2024, it brought down those estimates recently to 10,000. In the first few months of this year, the carrier added more than 800 pilots and 600 flight attendants, as reported by US News.