<p class="speakable"><span class="dateline">DENVER – </span>If you’ve ever boarded a <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/united-airlines" rel="noopener" target="_blank">United Airlines flight,</a> there’s a good chance your journey was quietly guided by a massive team working behind the scenes, far from the airport, and even farther from the public eye.</p><p class="speakable">That team is based at United Airlines’ Network Operations Center (NOC), a 24/7 command hub located just outside of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/chicago" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Chicago</a>, where specialists oversee nearly 5,000 flights a day.</p><p>The facility houses more than 2,000 employees across 26 departments, from flight dispatch and crew scheduling to meteorology and aircraft maintenance coordination. </p><p>Together, they monitor and manage United’s global operations, including departures and arrivals in <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/fox-news-airlines" rel="noopener" target="_blank">major airport hubs</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/tsa-screens-record-number-travelers-over-labor-day-weekend-air-travel-soars" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><u>TSA SCREENS RECORD NUMBER OF TRAVELERS OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND AS AIR TRAVEL SOARS</u></strong></a></p><p>"What you see in front of you is really where our global operations is controlled," Harel Magaritz, managing director of NOC daily operations, said during a behind-the-scenes tour of the center.</p><p>Magaritz says the job is all about constant coordination and expecting the unexpected.</p><p>"It’s about knowing that anything around the world can happen at any given moment," he said. "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."</p><p>That includes everything from mechanical issues to weather delays to crew reassignments.</p><p><a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/fox-news-travel/major-airline-makes-big-change-ease-travel-woes-chaos-newark-airport" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><u>MAJOR AIRLINE MAKES BIG CHANGE TO EASE TRAVEL WOES AMID CHAOS AT NEWARK AIRPORT</u></strong></a></p><p><a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/spirit-airlines-warns-may-not-survive-another-year" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><u>SPIRIT AIRLINES WARNS IT MAY NOT SURVIVE ANOTHER YEAR</u></strong></a></p><p>One of the most critical teams inside the NOC is the in-house meteorology department, led by Nathan Polderman, senior manager of meteorology. His team is responsible for issuing weather forecasts across <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/travel" rel="noopener" target="_blank">United’s network</a>, and flagging any events that might delay or ground flights.</p><p>"In some cases, we’ve had two or three hubs with thunderstorm activity in the same day," Polderman said. "So you can imagine that makes the weather team very busy."</p><p>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.</p><p><a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/united-airlines-ceo-gives-5-word-prediction-low-cost-rival-go-out-business" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><u>UNITED AIRLINES CEO GIVES 5-WORD PREDICTION THAT LOW-COST RIVAL WILL GO OUT OF BUSINESS</u></strong></a></p><p>"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 said.</p><p>Magaritz said the goal is simple: keep flights moving safely and smoothly, often before passengers even realize a problem exists.</p><p>"It’s about that comfort level of knowing you’re not out there by yourself," Margaritz said. "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."</p><p><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/download" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong><u>CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP</u></strong></a></p><p>United officials also emphasized how essential it is to receive real-time updates from airports across the country in order to keep operations seamless across the network.</p><p><i>A United Airlines leader says the job is all about constant coordination and expecting the unexpected.</i></p>