Supplying the demand for excellent people

Today the UK-based company is one of the world’s leading established flight crew leasing companies. Besides specialising in contract and permanent flight deck and cabin crew placements, it also offers training solutions, flight operations support, aircraft repossession and ferry and positioning flight services, where its Contractair Onecall product focuses on providing a comprehensive package, incorporating all aspects of the process required in moving an aircraft.

“We work together with airline companies worldwide, both for commercial and VIP operators,” said Cooremans.  “We are one of the few agencies to hold labour licenses in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. We recruit during times of pilot shortages, for example, or when an airline is changing fleets, or when its own pilots are in training and it needs temporary crew. To date we have 30,000 pilots on our books.

“Our training instructors and examiners have more than 2000 hours’ experience on a wide range of aircraft types including; A320, A330, A340, B737, B474, B777 and Embraer E-Jet series, and other types upon request. We also do license renewal checks and work with some Type Rating Training Organisations,” said Cooremans.

As well as Europe, the ISO 9001:2008 accredited company does a lot of work in the Far East and it was one of the first agencies to place pilots in China.

The Middle East and North Africa are also prominent regions, Cooremans said: “We do a lot of work with Egyptian carriers, which is one of the reasons why we’re at the Cairo conference. We also have a substantial amount of VIP work in North Africa and the Middle East.”

Contractair is now part of the large Resource Group, although Contractair still retains its own identity. “Contractair is a company that does things properly. We don’t take short cuts. We undertake thorough checks of our crew and keep abreast of current legislations at all times, ensuring trouble free transitions for both our clients and crews,” said Cooremans.