SALT LAKE CITY — Delta Air Lines has landed in Salt Lake City to build its first major pilot training facility outside of its Atlanta headquarters, breaking ground on the new building Thursday.
“This is the biggest investment we've made in our training infrastructure in over two decades," said Brad Sheehan, Vice President of Flight Training and Standards at Delta.
To become a pilot for an airline like Delta, pilots have to undergo more than 1,500 hours of training. Once certified, pilots have to retrain at least once a year, which means several days of traveling to Georgia to do so.
“The only training center at Delta Air Lines is in Atlanta,” explained pilot T.J. Bates, “That requires a couple of days of travel to and from, to get to our training that we have to do once, sometimes twice a calendar year.”
Bates said the new facility will be convenient in keeping pilots close to family and home.
“For me personally, and I know for a lot of the west coast pilots at Delta, this training center in Salt Lake City allows us the opportunity to stay closer to home,” said Bates.
The facility will be similar to Delta’s Atlanta training facility, which has 34 full flight simulators, plus 13 flight training devices and 20 procedure trainers. The 47,413 square-foot center is currently under construction along West Amelia Earhart Drive and Wright Brothers Drive.
Earlier this year, Delta finalized a new lease agreement with the city that extends the current lease to 2044 and increases Delta’s gate count from 55 to 66.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall believes the training center is part of another important deal with Delta, a partnership which she said helps the state’s economy fly to new heights.
“Delta Air Lines connects us to a global network so that we can share what so many of us already know, which is that Salt Lake City and the surrounding region is one of the best places in the world to visit and certainly an even better place to call home."
