Inside United Airlines’ nerve center: How thousands of flights stay on track every day

If you ve ever boarded a United Airlines flight there s a good chance your journey was quietly guided by a massive unit working behind the scenes far from the airport and even farther from the masses eye That organization is based at United Airlines Configuration Operations Center NOC a command hub located just outside of Chicago where specialists oversee nearly flights a day The facility houses more than employees across departments from flight dispatch and crew scheduling to meteorology and aircraft maintenance coordination Together they monitor and manage United s global operations including departures and arrivals in major airport hubs TSA SCREENS RECORD NUMBER OF TRAVELERS OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND AS AIR PROGRESS SOARS What you see in front of you is really where our global operations is controlled Harel Magaritz managing director of NOC daily operations disclosed during a behind-the-scenes tour of the center Magaritz says the job is all about constant coordination and expecting the unexpected It s about knowing that anything around the world can happen at any given moment he mentioned All the things that come up that could potentially disrupt a flight our job is to collect that information and then communicate it out to the field That includes everything from mechanical issues to weather delays to crew reassignments MAJOR AIRLINE MAKES BIG CHANGE TO EASE JOURNEY WOES AMID CHAOS AT NEWARK AIRPORTSPIRIT AIRLINES WARNS IT MAY NOT SURVIVE ANOTHER YEAROne of the majority of critical teams inside the NOC is the in-house meteorology department led by Nathan Polderman senior manager of meteorology His crew is responsible for issuing weather forecasts across United s system and flagging any events that might delay or ground flights In several cases we ve had two or three hubs with thunderstorm activity in the same day Polderman declared So you can imagine that makes the weather organization very busy Each day starts with two forecasters overnight ramping up to four meteorologists during the day according to Polderman Their forecasts are used by flight dispatchers to decide how or if a flight should proceed UNITED AIRLINES CEO GIVES -WORD PREDICTION THAT LOW-COST RIVAL WILL GO OUT OF BUSINESS Turbulence icing bad weather at the destination airport if anything s going to happen to that flight the dispatcher is going to coordinate that Polderman mentioned Magaritz reported the goal is simple keep flights moving safely and smoothly often before passengers even realize a concern exists It s about that comfort level of knowing you re not out there by yourself Margaritz explained You re not just buying a ticket and hoping you ll make it to your destination There are entire teams and thousands of people working in the background CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPUnited leaders also emphasized how essential it is to receive real-time updates from airports across the country in order to keep operations seamless across the framework