United Airlines signals possible headquarters relocation

Many airlines have dropped hints or leaked information about moving their headquarters to a new location, usually as a ploy to squeeze more concessions out of their current hosts.

In December, United Airlines filed an infrastructure master plan with Denver city planners for land it purchased in 2023, which looks like a new corporate headquarters.

The news first hit the street when United Airlines (United) purchased 113 acres of undeveloped agricultural land near Denver International Airport (DEN) in 2023.

At the time, United said the land was needed to build a satellite pilot training facility to support its larger Flight Training Center in Denver.

Rumors of a possible headquarters move from Chicago to Denver were fuelled by the fact that the land purchased was far more than needed for flight training.

Those thoughts strengthened in December 2024 when United filed its infrastructure plan with city planners.

In late January 2025, the Denver Business Journal reported that the fully built-out training campus called for 865,000 gross square feet, while the total development potential of the land is estimated at 2.9 million square feet, according to the filed plans.

United said the remaining space allowed for flexibility in addressing unknown business needs, including research space, network operations, a data center and associated supporting services.

This plan looks like a Corporate HQ

The intriguing element is that in its infrastructure plan, United Airlines outlined the potential to develop five office buildings, at least two parking structures and common space for uses like a food hall, meeting rooms, fitness center and a 50,000-square-foot conference center. United spokesperson Pat Mullane told WGN Investigates:

The plan also said the airline will develop office space for 6,000 employees and parking garages for more than 5,000 cars, a strikingly similar number to the 5,000 corporate employees in Chicago.

The site is adjacent to Fulenwider's Pena Station Next development, a master-planned community along the Regional Transportation District's A Line train to Denver International Airport.

The first phase of the flight training center is planned to include 12-14 flight simulator bays, while a second phase could increase that to 60 flight simulator bays.

United's global hub for pilot training is located in Denver's Central Park neighborhood at what was previously Stapleton Airport, which added an eighth building with space for 12 more simulators last year.

2024 was a record year at Denver International Airport

Denver is a significant location for United where it employs more than 10,500 people. In 2024, the airline handled nearly 39 million passengers at Denver International Airport, recording a market share of 47.3%, the highest of any airline at DEN.

Last year was a record year at Denver International, with the airport serving 82.36 million passengers, a 5.8% increase over the 77.8 million it handled in 2023.

It was also the first year in the airport's history it had surpassed the 80 million passengers milestone, beating its previous record-high set in 2024.

As well as being its busiest year ever, Denver International recorded several notable milestones in 2024, including:

• 11 out of 12 months set all-time passenger traffic records.
• All 12 months set new records for international passenger traffic.
• The three busiest months ever are now July 2024, June 2024 and August 2024, respectively.
• Sunday, July 7, 2024, is now the busiest day ever through DEN's TSA checkpoints and it was the first day ever for the airport to process more than 90,000 passengers through the checkpoints.
• Saturday, March 30, 2024, is now ranked as the busiest day ever through Denver International's Federal Inspection Service facility, with more than 7,400 arriving international passengers.

The three leading carriers at Denver International in 2024 were United Airlines (47.3%), Southwest Airlines (31.0%) and Frontier Airlines (10.1%).

Data from Airports Council International for the first ten months of 2024 shows that Denver ranked as the third-busiest airport in the United States and the sixth-busiest airport in the world.