United Airlines: Behind the scenes at IAD

Behind the Scenes

United Airlines at IAD

Starting off the behind the scenes tour with baggage.

AKE lightweight LD-3 containers for widebodies.

Baggage during a slow day.

Big building, although considering how busy IAD is...

UPS MD-11.

One of the larger maintenane hangars.

Boeing 767-400ER inside.

GE CF6-80C2 engines for the 767-400ER.

Turbine end view.

Nacelle/pylon.

Closer view.

Brakes are beefy.

Under Concourse C.

United Airlines flight office for IAD.

The coveted trading cards.

Pilot Jen Shields, flight manager at IAD.

We all fit in one elevator?

Inflight services (aka flight attendants) at IAD. Inside.

Inside.

Josh Parker, inflight base superisor, is well-traveled.

Flight attendant name badges/wings.

Swag for customers.

Back onto the tarmac at Concourse C, gate C25.

Selfie time.

N37528 getting quite a crowd for departure.

Loading luggage on a 737 is very labor-intensive.

My turn for a selfie.

Loading the front cargo hold, too.

N37528 being prepped for a flight.

Underneath the terminal.

New construction, concourse E.

Going behind the scenes with United Airlines and their operation at Dulles International Airport (IAD). Started at the baggage operation, from the conveyor belts to the warehouses, dovetailing neatly into a bit of the cargo operation. Then off to one of the maintenance hangars, where a 767-400ER was getting an engine change. One of the lead mechanics talked to us about some of the same bits discussed at the tour I went to at United's maintenance facility in Houston (IAH) a few weeks ago, but with a somewhat different perspective; a bit more operational in terms of immediate impacts and parts life-cycle, which was cool.

Then got a tour of airport operations, then flight operations, including a chat wiht flight manager and pilot Jen Shields and some of her team-- super cool. Then downstairs to the inflight operations base (aka flight attendants), which honestly has just as much mystery as the flight ops and airport ops given just how many flight attendants there are. I forget the numbers (should have taken notes!) but it's thousands of FA's at each hub.

Next big bit of the tour was watching a 737 MAX actually being prepped and loaded for flight. The ground crew and passengers probably wondered what all these crazies were doing, paying to watch them work/fly? But again, as an actual window into a live operation, waaaaaaaaaaaaay awesome to see first-hand.