I toured United's new flight school that's training the next generation amid a pilot shortage — see inside

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United Airlines recently opened the Aviate Academy in Goodyear, Arizona — the only flight academy of its kind operated by a major airline in the country. I visited it.

The school currently has approximately 120 students, and it's adding about 30 students per month.

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Marc Champion, United's managing director for flight training, told Insider data showed increased demand for air travel would require more pilots.

United decided to create the Aviate program as part of its response.

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United chose Arizona due to its large number of blue-sky days and great weather for flight training.

The United Aviate Academy is the first step for an aspiring United Airlines captain.

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Instead of earning several certifications separately from different places, students at the academy can receive their private pilot license and a variety of other certificates during a 12-month program.

Then they move to "Aviate," a further training program where students build hours with United Airlines Aviate partners — like Go Jet or Air Wisconsin — before ultimately being hired by United Airlines.

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When I visited the academy, I met with three female student pilots — Abby Awosanya, 31 years old; Tunisia Solomon, 24; Grace Durbin, 21 — and Jill Mills, a United employee for more than 25 years.

Mills currently serves as the chief pilot in Washington, where she oversees day-to-day operations and pilots.

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I arrived the day after a new class began the program, so Mills was in town to represent the pilot force and answer questions during a panel presentation.

One goal of the academy is to make flying for a major airline — preferably United — more accessible to women and people of color.

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Mills told Insider that at 7%, United has the second highest percentage of female pilots in the world. At the United Aviate Academy, 70% of the pilots in training are women and/or people of color.

The women noted that having a group of peers to train with, as well as the ability to learn how to fly with Cirrus planes, attracted them to the program.

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I was able to go on a quick flight with Solomon before her first official flight of the day.

Solomon began flight training in college, when she was studying applied mathematics at the State University of New York. She learned about aviation through a friend and said she's loved it ever since.

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While I trusted Solomon and her instructor’s expertise, something about crawling into a plane so small that it requires entering by stepping on the wing started to invoke a feeling of terror in me.

Getting the plane off the ground takes a while. I braced myself for our departure probably 10 times before our eventual takeoff.

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Fortunately, most of the time was spent doing a variety of checks, which made me feel slightly safer.

Eventually, we were in the skies and my worries began to melt away as I took in the desert landscape, flight schools and suburban sprawl of the city of Goodyear below us.

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After a quick lap around the campus, it was time to land. My flight jitters started to kick in again, but Solomon landed expertly with less impact than I’ve come to expect from commercial flights.

Solomon then continued her day of training with another supervised flight, moving one step closer to her dream of becoming a pilot.

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Upon finishing the academy, she'll move on to receiving her ATP certification, before flying for one of United's Express Aviate partners and finally becoming one of United Airlines' approximately 12,000 pilots.

The United Aviate Academy plans to grow its roster of pilots, which are in increasingly high demand, with a goal of training 5,000 by 2030.

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By then, the enthusiastic pilots I met today will be well into their careers.