United has officially broken ground on a new 140,000-square-foot Ground Service Equipment (GSE) Maintenance Facility at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), while simultaneously opening a new, state-of-the-art Technical Operations Training Center at the airport that will give employees a cutting-edge training experience.
According to certain reports, United projects this new $177 million GSE maintenance facility to effectively support the airline’s fleet of more than 1,800 ground service vehicles. Set to open the proceedings during 2027, the entire development will give United’s Ground Service Equipment maintenance team, comprised of more than 130 employees, access to greater resources for the purpose of performing critical tasks like charging batteries, fabricating metal, and monitoring electronic controls with improved infrastructure and modernized workspaces.
On the other hand, United’s new $16 million Tech Ops Training Center (TTC) will tread up a long distance to support the airline’s plan to take delivery of hundreds of new planes by 2032. In essence, the 91,000-square-foot facility packs together sheet metal and composite training shops, desktop simulators, as well as scenario-based engine maintenance and inspection trainings.
“By opening our Tech Ops Training Center, we are setting a new industry standard for real world and specialized training opportunities for United technicians,” said Maria Deacon, Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at United. “We’re also extremely pleased to break ground on a new GSE maintenance facility which will revolutionize our capacity to maintain our fleet of ground service equipment for decades to come.”
More on that would reveal how the new Training Center will package a cutting-edge $6.3 million Move Team Facility, strategically designed to centralize United’s Super Tug operations. For better understanding, United’s IAH Move Team presently manages over 15 Super Tugs across the airfield, efficiently moving hundreds of aircraft daily to support flight departures, remote parking areas, and Technical Operations Hangars.
Hence, to leverage these existing capabilities and the new investment, United will introduce more than 500 new, narrow-body aircraft into its fleet, increase the total number of available seats per domestic departure by nearly 30%, dramatically reduce carbon emissions per seat, and create tens of thousands of high-quality, unionized jobs by 2026.
Talk about United’s new GSE facility on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how it is designed to meet LEED Silver certification. Furthermore, it will be twice the size of the current facility, which was built 40 years ago when IAH had only 37% of its current gates.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in new GSE maintenance facility’s bid to provide much-needed space for meeting both current and future needs. This includes a 25% in repair space, a 60% increase in shop space, an 80% increase in storage capacity, as well as a 50% increase in shared spaces.
Next up, United’s investment will look to support the surrounding community. The company, in Houston alone, hired more than 2,100 people locally in 2023 and added over 600 new team members in 2024. Moving forward, United is expecting to create 4,000 new construction jobs.
Contextualizing the importance of such a development is a recent study by Compass Lexecon where it was discovered that United’s direct employment in Houston contributes to more than $1.2 billion in economic activity annually.
United Airlines’ $16-million state-of-the-art Tech Ops Training Center (TTC) in Houston also consolidates new hire and advanced skills training for Tech Ops employees across a 91,000-square-foot facility. You see, TTC provides a comprehensive, hands-on learning environment, which empowers technicians to learn aspects of Boeing 737 and 787 troubleshooting, along with scenario-based engine maintenance trainings, such as specialized aspects of aircraft maintenance, like borescope and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) engine inspections.
Among other things, we ought to mention how United is the largest airline in Houston, with more than 14,000 employees and more than 500 daily departures.
“We believe that investing in our people and our facilities is the key to maintaining our leadership in the aviation industry,” said Phil Griffith, Vice President of Airport Operations. “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.”
