United’s Aviate Academy to train new generation of pilots

At United Airlines’ flight school in Arizona, the airline aims to open career opportunities to becoming a pilot for nontraditional candidates, including women and people of color, who may have previously faced financial barriers to the industry. The Aviate Academy will not only build the pipeline for pilots, but also equip students with the technical skills to pilot commercial aircraft. “One example of that is that we’ll be doing upset recovery – so very, very advanced kind of acrobatic training with our pilots. It’s something that professional flight-training organizations don’t do,” said Capt. Curtis Brunjes, Aviate’s managing director. “It represents United innovating and doing something above and beyond the minimum.”