Southwest Airlines resumed expansion of Pilot Training Center

Southwest Airlines has resumed the expansion of its Pilot Training Center, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The $13 million project, which began in October of 2019 but was suspended months later when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., will be based at the carrier’s Dallas headquarters. It is expected to be completed in 2024.

The 127,588 square foot facility is known as the Leadership Education and Aircrew Development (LEAD) Center and will include flight simulators, classrooms, support facilities and more.

“While we’ve expanded the building, the build-out of many of the floors inside was put on hold at the beginning of COVID,” Southwest spokesman Dan Landson told the Morning News. “Now that air travel demand is returning, we’re moving forward with the finishing of the interior spaces, which will add space for our new hire training classes.”

Like most domestic airlines, Southwest is suffering from a pilot shortage that is only likely to worsen as more and more pilots reach the mandatory retirement age of 65.

It is a dilemma that was acknowledged last month by then-CEO Gary Kelly before he stepped down and gave way to Robert Jordan.

“We need pilots, we need flight attendants, we need ramp staffing, and you need the appropriate amount of buffer in all of those areas until we sort of see our way past COVID and understand what more normalized staffing, more normalized behaviors, more normalized sick leave looks like,” Kelly said in a call with investors.

United Airlines opened its own training center, the Flight Academy, last month.