United Airlines is facing a second lawsuit related to its United Aviate Academy, the flight school the airline launched in 2022 to support the carrier’s goal of hiring more than 10,000 pilots within the next decade.

The lawsuit alleges fraud and significant delays in training, which prevented program completion within the advertised timeframe. Carrie Lynne Thompson, the plaintiff in the case, is seeking $500,000 in damages.

This latest development follows a similar lawsuit filed in federal court last month by 29 former students of United Aviate Academy. They claim that the facility doesn’t have enough instructors or aircraft to properly train and graduate its students in the allotted time.

As a result, many were forced to drop out or were expelled from the school for “taking too long to advance” through the program.

A Lack Of Resources Delays Training

According to court documents, the academy markets itself as an expedited flight school program designed to provide all necessary certifications to become a commercial pilot within one year.

Students are prohibited from working while attending the academy, forcing many to rely on student loans and savings to fund their education based on the promised accelerated timeline.

Thomson says that a lack of teaching resources and aircraft meant that it took more than four times the advertised amount of time to finish just the first of seven course components. She stated in court documents:

“It took me nine months to receive my private pilot license [PPL], which was, according to the student agreement and course catalog provided by both the academy and United Airlines, supposed to take two.”

She is now seeking $500,000 in damages, looking to recover the losses she alleges were incurred due to the academy’s mismanagement and misleading promises.

Her lawsuit contends that the financial strain imposed by the extended duration of the program, combined with lost income and accrued debts and expenses, warrants this compensation.

Training Fees Exceed $100K/year

The United Aviate Academy began operations in early 2022 following the airline’s acquisition and re-branding of the Westwind School of Aeronautics in Phoenix.

The academy was launched with the goal of training 5,000 new pilots at the school by 2030, with at least half being women or people of color.

For aspiring commercial pilots, the advantages of joining the academy are its accelerated program and direct access to potential job opportunities with United upon completion.

Becoming fully qualified at the academy comes at a steep cost. Annual fees exceed $100,000 for all parts of the coursework, more than you would expect to pay for even the best medical schools in the US.

But Thomson and others felt it was worth it if the training created a fast-track to employment with a major airline within a year.

Both lawsuits allege that the academy is understaffed and under-resourced. One participant claims that the lack of staff meant that she had a different instructor during each of her first four flights, and by the time she reached her eighth flight, a fellow student was instructing her.

The lawsuit also alleges that students were sometimes evaluated by instructors who were not pilots themselves. The facility also reportedly has just 20 aircraft to train the hundreds of enrolled students, so multiple weeks could elapse between training flights.

Losing Its Accreditation

The lawsuits also allege that the school had an enrollment cap of 325 students “to ensure sufficient resources.” However, more than 380 students enrolled in the program in March 2024.

This led to the academy running afoul of its accrediting body, which issued a warning letter to the flight school, in part because of its enrollment numbers. The plaintiffs maintain that the response of the United Aviate Academy was to begin expelling students for “taking too long to advance.”

By August of last year, the school was placed on probation by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, and it voluntarily withdrew its accreditation in January.

United has since stated that it “is exploring an alternative accreditation that better meets the needs of the flight school,” and is defending against the lawsuits, having filed motions to strike the complaints based on procedural issues.