Chennai-based Paramount Airways plans to hire 500 pilots and 600 cabin crew in the next two years as it eyes nation-wide presence and a five-fold increase in fleet size by 2011.
The airline, which currently has five Embraer jets, will take delivery of another 20 aircraft by 2010-11.
"We employ 25 pilots and 30 cabin crew per aircraft. Accordingly the numbers will go up (with the addition in the fleet)," Paramount managing director M Thiagarajan told PTI.
The carrier would begin the hiring shortly with two more Embraer aircraft slated for delivery by the end of March.
The airline, which offers only business and first class configuration, deploys a higher number of flight attendants than others.
"We deploy five cabin crew per flight against the industry average of two per flight for economy class," he said.
Paramount currently has about 125 pilots and 150 cabin crew members.
With the increased resources, the airline wants to first 'saturate' the western India market and then launch operations in the northern and north-eastern regions.
"We have already started our operations in Western India. We plan to saturate the market and be the most dominant player in the west by the end of 2009," Thiagarajana said.
The carrier, which currently connects Goa, Ahmedabad and Pune to various cities in the South, will make Mumbai the hub for it operations in the western market.
"We will add 500-600 flights per month in the next six months and make Mumbai the hub for our inter-region and intra-region operations in the west," he said.
The airline will continue to position itself as the preferred carrier for business travellers but has no plan to offer economy class in its flights. Paramount is the market leader in the south with 26 per cent share.
The company will also launch its international operations by 2012-13 for which it already in advanced stages of dialogue with aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing to place orders for about 7-10 planes.
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