Top 10 Crew Leasing and Contract Pilot Agencies (2026)

Rishworth is one of the best-known names in crew leasing, with around 40 years of experience. Under its model, Rishworth recruits personnel, the airline selects them, and Rishworth engages and assigns them while handling logistics, administration, pay, HR and contractual responsibilities.

It says it has worked with clients and crew in more than 40 countries and has deployed thousands of personnel, with particular depth in Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East.

CAE's crewing business grew out of Parc Aviation, which was once described as the largest supplier of flight crew on medium- and long-term contracts to airlines and later became part of CAE through its acquisition of Oxford Aviation Academy.

CAE's crewing solutions brochure cites around 1,200 flight crew and 300 cabin crew, eight resourcing offices and multi-jurisdictional payroll. Its link to CAE's training network means it can combine crew supply with type ratings and recurrent training.

Brookfield offers pilot leasing alongside recruitment. It provides captains and first officers for contract assignments worldwide, letting airlines expand without adding permanent staff, and also runs fully outsourced staffing programmes with payroll management.

Brookfield says it has served more than 250 airline clients since 1993 and placed more than 7,000 pilots and engineers, with representative offices across Latin America, Asia and Europe.

OSM Aviation built its business on outsourced crew management, covering recruitment, training, planning and execution for pilots and cabin crew. Its model was the subject of an IMD business school case study on labour outsourcing in aviation.

OSM's best-known contracts include providing cabin crew for Finnair routes, which showed how a crew management company can take over an entire crew function rather than filling individual positions.

AeroPersonnel Global has provided aviation personnel recruitment and leasing since 1997. It serves airlines, MROs and aerospace companies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

Its sourcing network covers major labour-exporting regions, and it places particular emphasis on supporting crew working in China, one of the largest markets for expatriate contract pilots.

Wasinc International is a specialist pilot leasing firm focused on Chinese and Asian airlines. During the boom in foreign pilot hiring, its president described it to Fortune as a pilot leasing firm recruiting for Chengdu Airlines.

Its niche is the high-paying expatriate contract market in China, where airlines rely on leased captains to cover growth that domestic training cannot yet fill.

Direct Personnel places contract pilots with airlines through an agency model, recruiting examiners, instructors, captains and first officers. Most of its contract positions are in Asia, where pilot demand exceeds supply.

It also supports contractors during their assignments and helps line up their next contract before the current one ends, which helps airlines retain experienced crew across contract cycles.

3Crew is a New Zealand-based airline resource management firm that offers contract positions for pilots and cabin crew and supports them through the application process and during employment.

It also offers interview, aptitude and simulator preparation, which helps airlines receive candidates who are ready to pass assessment, and its focus spans Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East.

Peregrine Aviation provides crew leasing services and places pilots, flight engineers, cabin crew and ground engineers on contract and permanent terms. Candidates go through simulator evaluation, profile review and background checks before placement.

It also offers training, flight operations support and ferry flights, giving operators a broader support package than a pure staffing agency.

BAA Training, the training arm of the Avia Solutions Group, was the first in its region to offer short-term leasing of flight and cabin crews, with crews employed by BAA and flying the airline's schedule. It launched the service in 2012 with airlines in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.

Its place inside the world's largest ACMI group gives it unusual insight into what ACMI operators need, and its training centres can bring crews to the required standard before deployment.