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United is the largest airline at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) with more than 72% marketshare there. It employs 14,000 and offers more than 500 daily departures. To keep things running smoothly, United is investing heavily in the airport and breaking ground on a new 140,000-square-foot Ground Service Equipment (GSE) Maintenance Facility.
Since 2021, United has invested more than $32 billion worldwide on modern infrastructure, technology, and nearly $10 billion in employee raises. The facility is expected to open in 2027 and it will support the airline’s fleet of more than 1,800 ground service vehicles. It will also give United’s Ground Service Equipment maintenance team of more than 130 employees more resources to charge batteries, fabricate metal, and monitor electronic controls with improved infrastructure and modernized workspaces.
A new, $16 million Tech Ops Training Center (TTC) will support the airline’s plans of bringing on hundreds of new aircraft by 2032. The 91,000-square-foot facility includes sheet metal and composite training shops, desktop simulators, as well as scenario-based engine maintenance and inspection trainings.
The new Training Center will house a cutting-edge $6.3 million Move Team Facility, which is designed to centralize United’s Super Tug operations. United’s IAH Move Team manages over 15 Super Tugs across the airfield. These efficiently move hundreds of aircraft daily in support of flight departures, remote parking areas, and Technical Operations Hangars. This significant investment is all tied to the airline’s growth under the United Next strategy. United Next will transform the customer experience with more than 500 narrow-body aircraft being added to United’s fleet. This will increase the total number of available seats per domestic departure by nearly 30%, dramatically reduce carbon emissions per seat, and create tens of thousands jobs by 2026.
Vice President of Airport Operations, Phil Griffith, said:
At United, we believe that investing in our people and our facilities is the key to maintaining our leadership in the aviation industry. With these new facilities, Ground Service Equipment Maintenance Facility and the Technical Operations Training Center, we are enhancing our ability to maintain a world-class fleet while empowering our employees with cutting-edge tools and training. This investment reflects our long-term vision for Houston as a critical hub for United’s operations and our commitment to sustainability, efficiency, and growth.”
Investments have been ongoing for several years. In 2023, United Airlines purchased 113 acres of land in Denver for $33 million to expand its pilot training and other operations. The Chicago-based carrier acquired two parcels of land, including one outside of Denver International Airport (DEN) with access to its Flight Training Center.
United is Denver’s largest employer. It has around 10,000 employees and flies over 400 daily flights from Denver, which is the most of any airline (despite the marketing efforts of Southwest Airlines to claim otherwise). Reuters reports that United was asked about a potential move for its corporate headquarters and the airline was coy in its reply.
Anthony’s Take: I give United props for making smart investments in its future. Its essential for ground operations to run smoothly, employees to be properly trained, and the customer experience to continue to improve. United seems to be making strides on all of these fronts.
(Image Credits: United Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
