SEATTLE — Even Alaska Airlines’ chief operating officer can get turned around inside the company’s new Global Training Center.
“Let’s see how good my bearings are,” Jason Berry said as he led the way down one of the long corridors inside the sprawling Renton facility. Moments later, he laughed after realizing he’d taken a wrong turn.
The building is easy to get lost in.
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Alaska’s new training hub spans 670,000 square feet, housing classrooms, mock airport gates, check-in counters, emergency training rooms, flight simulators, and uniform fitting areas. About 60,000 square feet remains undeveloped, leaving room for future expansion.
The airline said it invested $200 million in the facility, which is designed to train Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines employees as the combined carrier pursues an ambitious expansion through 2030.
That growth plan includes new international routes, hundreds of additional employees, and a larger operation that will require more workers to be trained before ever stepping into an airport or onto an aircraft.
For Berry, the building has already changed the way he works.
“Here in the office, I probably get 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day just running around,” Berry said. “I don’t even text anyone anymore. Most of my vice presidents are here. If I need something, I just get up and walk and go find it.”
Inside the center, new employees begin their careers by receiving badges, meeting instructors, and learning the airline’s safety culture. One wall displays Alaska’s accident history, serving as a reminder of the company’s past and the importance of safety.
Berry said the airline embraces that history as a teaching tool rather than avoiding it.
Instead, he said, it reinforces the importance of preparation, training, and following procedures.
Some of the most advanced instruction takes place inside full-motion flight simulators, where pilots train in virtual cockpits designed to closely replicate real aircraft. The simulators can place crews at a gate in Seattle or in challenging flight scenarios involving turbulence, severe weather, runway traffic, go-arounds, and other emergencies.
The technology represents a significant investment.
Berry said individual simulators cost about $20 million, while some can approach $30 million.
But the training center is designed for far more than pilots.
Flight attendants begin with a uniform fitting center, where each new crew member is measured for a custom-tailored uniform.
“Every new flight attendant or pilot comes in and gets a custom-tailored uniform fit,” Berry said.
From there, flight attendants move into emergency training.
One room is dedicated to water evacuation exercises.
“This is the ditching room,” Berry said. “This is where they practice in the event of a water landing.”
Berry said Alaska employs nearly 9,000 flight attendants, each of whom must be trained on the safety equipment used across the airline’s fleet.
Another area features a mock aircraft fuselage where crews practice evacuations, decompression scenarios, onboard fires and other emergencies without ever leaving the ground.
During a demonstration, trainers showed how the simulator can project emergency scenarios outside the cabin windows, including an aircraft overrunning a runway. Inside, crews can respond to simulated overhead-bin fires, including those involving lithium-ion batteries, and practice emergency decompression procedures as oxygen masks deploy throughout the cabin.
Training for new flight attendants lasts about six weeks, Berry said.
The Global Training Center also includes mock ticket counters and boarding gates where employees practice customer service, boarding procedures and airport operations before interacting with passengers.
Berry said the goal is to train employees across every step of the travel experience — from the ticket counter to the cabin, and from routine customer service to high-pressure emergencies.
The investment comes as Alaska Airlines continues integrating Hawaiian Airlines and preparing to expand its international network. Company leaders have said the combined carrier plans to grow both its global footprint and its workforce, with the Renton training center serving as a key part of that strategy.
For Alaska, the facility is more than a corporate campus. It’s a training ground for the airline the company hopes to become. And inside a building so large that even its chief operating officer is still learning his way around, Alaska is betting its future growth will depend on the people being trained there today.
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