United begins building $16M training center in Fairfax County

United Airlines has started construction on a $16 million inflight training center in Fairfax County, the county’s economic development authority announced Monday.

The 20,000-square-foot facility near the airline’s hub at Washington Dulles International Airport, which straddles the Fairfax and Loudoun county lines, is expected to open in 2025.

“We are excited and honored that United has chosen to locate their new, state-of-the-art training facility in Fairfax County,” Victor Hoskins, president and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to support United in their growth journey.”

United will train 650 flight attendants a month on safety and service at the center, which will have classrooms, airplane cabin and door trainers and a mock fuselage to practice evacuating aircraft and other emergency situations.

The facility will be the training home for flight attendants in United operations at Washington, D.C., area airports, including Dulles, Ronald Reagan Washington National and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall airports. United is the D.C. region’s largest carrier by flights and destinations, according to a news release.

“This new training center is yet another step in our long-term investment in our people and our commitment to growth here in the greater Washington region,” John Slater, United’s vice president of inflight services, said in a statement.

United made Dulles Airport a hub nearly 40 years ago. It now has nearly 250 daily flights to about 100 destinations from Dulles, and the airline is set to open a 435,000-square-foot concourse at the airport in 2026.

United also has hubs in Chicago; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Newark, New Jersey; and Guam. In January 2023, United opened a 56,000-square-foot inflight training center in Houston.