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- Delta Air Lines opened a $50-million flight training center in Salt Lake City, marking the company's first training facility outside Atlanta.
- The facility includes simulators for the A350, A320 and soon, the B737.
- Local leaders praised the facility's potential to boost regional growth and improve pilot and employee convenience.
SALT LAKE CITY — Delta Air Lines made history Tuesday when it opened a $50-million flight operations training facility in Salt Lake City.
The facility includes four flight simulation bays and is equipped with an A350 and A320 simulator, with a B737 simulator set to join the mix in the spring.
The new flight simulators in Salt Lake City are the first Delta has had in a training facility anywhere other than its Atlanta headquarters.
"I've been with Delta for 17 years. For 17 years, I've been going to Atlanta to do all simulator training," said Brian Rees, Delta's chief pilot in Salt Lake City. "This will be huge for not only the pilots of Salt Lake, but we have a base in Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis that are close, that will have those pilots come in here to train, as well."
This is especially important for Delta pilots, as they have to be recertified on an aircraft every nine months.
In addition to the four simulation bays, the nearly 50,000-square-foot facility houses four procedure training rooms for qualification training, 10 briefing rooms and seven classrooms to allow Delta stakeholders to use the building. There is also plenty of room for future growth, with expansion space on site for six additional flight simulators and four more classrooms.
"We have 5,000 employees here in the region, and when you talk about our pilots, we have the very best pilots," said Ed Bastian, CEO at Delta. "We want to make sure we have the very best tools and technology and capability at their fingertips here. But all the other employees and families that we have here, it's a statement to them, as well, in terms of seeing this great facility go up."
Delta plans to complete over 1,000 training events at the facility every month throughout 2025, which adds up to about 1,200 hotel rooms per month and 350 pilots coming into Utah's capital city every month to go through training.
Opening a facility like the one in Salt Lake City would not have happened "without an incredibly supportive county, city and state," Bastian said.
"You (Delta) have helped make Utah the success that it is today," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Tuesday. "You don't get to be a world-class capital city without a world-class airport, and we don't have this world-class airport without Delta."
Cox expressed his gratitude for Delta enabling its employees who live and work in Utah to no longer be required to leave the state to get their training and certifications. He also expressed optimism for the growth that the training facility could bring to Utah.
"They'll be able to stay here with their families, (and) we'll be able to bring new people here, new families here who get to experience the beauty of Utah," Cox said.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall echoed these sentiments.
"I just want to say, I think Delta looks really good on Salt Lake City," Mendenhall said. "I can say confidently that Salt Lake City is prepared to grow with you, Delta. The significance of this training facility is not lost on Salt Lake City. It's a major step forward for our partnership and the development of Delta as an airline and Salt Lake City as a major capital city in the United States and I look forward to the future of all the growth, the professionalism and the welcoming that this facility and our partnership ensures."
