Michael Johnson started Paramount Aviation Resources Group (Booth No. C12647) of Fredericksburg, Va., in 2007 as a crew procurement company after finishing his contract as chief pilot with Japan Airlines, where he also did contract administration, and realized there was a market for finding and screening flight crews for airlines. He had worked there since 2001 after being furloughed from American Airlines following the 9/11 attacks. He still holds his seniority number at American.
While airline crew recruiting is still a big part of Paramount’s business, a few years ago the company started offering ferry flights, too. “Ferrying turned out to be a good business for us,” Johnson told AIN, “because it has better margins than the crew procurement.” Setting up a ferry flight, he explained, usually takes no more than a month and can sometimes be done in just a few weeks. Finding quality pilots, training them how to prepare for interviews with mostly foreign–mostly Asian–carriers and getting them hired on a contract basis can take three to six months.
