United Airlines begins construction on $177m GSE facility in Texas

GlobalData

Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 2:59 AM 2 min read

United Airlines has breached crushed connected a caller 140,000ft² Ground Service Equipment (GSE) Maintenance Facility astatine George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and has besides inaugurated an precocious Technical Operations Training Center (TTC) successful Houston, Texas, US.

The caller GSE Maintenance Facility, with an concern of $177m, volition heighten enactment for United's fleet of much than 1,800 crushed work vehicles.

Set to unfastened successful 2027, the installation volition supply the company's attraction team, comprising much than 130 employees, with resources for indispensable tasks specified arsenic artillery charging, metallic fabrication, and physics controls monitoring.

The installation aims for Leadership successful Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification, boasting a 25% summation successful repair space, 60% much store space, 80% added retention capacity, and 50% much shared spaces compared to the existent 40-year-old facility.

Alongside this GSE facility, the caller $16m TTC volition facilitate the integration of caller craft into United's fleet by 2032.

The 91,000ft² centre features expanse metallic and composite grooming shops, desktop simulators, and specialised motor attraction and inspection grooming areas.

Additionally, the TTC comprises a $6.3m Move Team Facility that volition centralise the operations of much than 15 Super Tugs, important for moving craft crossed the airfield.

These investments are portion of United's 'United Next' strategy aimed astatine supporting the airline’s growth.

The strategy includes transforming the lawsuit acquisition by introducing much than 500 caller narrow-body aircraft, expanding seats per home departure by astir 30%, reducing c emissions per seat, and creating thousands of unionised jobs by 2026.

United Airlines Airport Operations vice-president Phil Griffith said: "At United, we judge that investing successful our radical and our facilities is the cardinal to maintaining our enactment successful the aviation industry.

"With these caller facilities, Ground Service Equipment Maintenance Facility and the Technical Operations Training Center, we are enhancing our quality to support a world-class fleet portion empowering our employees with cutting-edge tools and training. This concern reflects our semipermanent imaginativeness for Houston arsenic a captious hub for United's operations and our committedness to sustainability, efficiency, and growth."

These investments besides travel the motorboat of the Terminal B renovation and enlargement task by United.

Expected to beryllium completed successful 2026, this inaugural volition present 40 gates designed for larger aircraft, thereby enhancing capableness by 40% for passengers flying some domestically and internationally from IAH.