Gallery: An Inside Look at Southwest’s Training Center

Southwest Chief Executive Bob Jordan says pilot training, not hiring, is the airline’s current most significant constraint, despite adding 1,200 pilots in 2022 and 2,250 pilots in 2023. The company is investing heavily in additional simulators and instructors. Jordan believes the constraint will shift from pilots to aircraft shortages by the back-half of 2023.
 

A CFM-56 turbofan engine de-cowlinged and displayed at the TOPS building. Southwest is world’s largest Boeing 737 and CFM operator.
 

Training Huddle Rooms. Tchotchkes, dioramas, murals, and photos are emblazoned on Southwest’s meeting and huddle rooms – internally known as Culture Centers.
 

Training Huddle Rooms. Tchotchkes, dioramas, murals, and photos are emblazoned on Southwest’s meeting and huddle rooms – internally known as Culture Centers.
 

Training Huddle Rooms. Tchotchkes, dioramas, murals, and photos are emblazoned on Southwest’s meeting and huddle rooms – internally known as Culture Centers.
 

The world’s largest operator of Boeing 737s unsurprisingly boasts the largest number of 737 simulators – with 26 on property and more on the way! Southwest conducts all of its pilot training in-house. The sims are occupied nearly every day of the year except Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day in four-hour blocks, often round the clock from 6 a.m.-3 a.m., only going down for maintenance. 
 

On the flightdeck of a CAE Boeing 737 MAX 8 simulator, spooling up for departure from the new LaGuardia terminal B.

The Emergency Evacuation Training Center at the TOPS Building features a full motion flight fuselage with simulated smoke and an evacuation slide. This trainer is being replaced by a new model. Scattered throughout the facility are life rafts, a jet-bridge simulator, life vests, emergency exit trainers, and mannequins for life support training.
 

The Emergency Evacuation Training Center at the TOPS Building features a full motion flight fuselage with simulated smoke and an evacuation slide. This trainer is being replaced by a new model. Scattered throughout the facility are life rafts, a jet-bridge simulator, life vests, emergency exit trainers, and mannequins for life support training.
 

The flight attendant cabin experience trainer is an actual fuselage of a former 737 with the windows cut away. Large monitors positioned above the trainer provide a livestream for instructors and students alike.
 

The Emergency Evacuation Training Center at the TOPS Building includes life rafts, a jet-bridge simulator, life vests, emergency exit trainers, and mannequins for life support training.
 

A life-sized model of an Aviation Partners Split Scimitar winglet graces the lobby of Southwest’s TOPS (Training Operations) Building at Dallas Love Field.
 

A salvaged Boeing 737 cockpit protrudes from the wall of the TOPS building. A passenger cabin image is cleverly plastered inside behind the flight deck, giving the impression that a plane has just driven through the wall.
 

This small Boeing 737 MAX cabin simulator demonstrates the passenger experience upgrades with the airline’s new MAX fleet including Boeing’s enlarged overhead storage bins (billed as SpaceBins), the new slimline seating, and the new USB power-ports which will be implemented beginning in the Summer 2023 with new build MAXs.
 

Aft galley trainer.
 

This gate and check-in simulator replicates the airport experience for customer service agents. It has functioning PAs, FIDS (with flights from DAL), kiosks, and computers tied into the airline’s GDS. 
 

Classroom flight simulators, operated at a fraction of the cost of the company’s 26 full motion simulators, are ubiquitous at the TOPS building.