In recent years, the American company Amazon has been investing in its own cargo airline. By 2025, Amazon Air is expected to operate 50 aircraft. Discover this new player, which could well gain market share from the giants FedEx and UPS.
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A Prime Air aircraft (source: mcall)
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A new company
Launched in 2016, Amazon Air will soon have 50 aircraft in its network. The company has expanded its partnership with Air Transport Services Group, which will now operate 30 cargo aircraft on behalf of Amazon. The 10 additional aircraft will be added over the next two years. In reality, Amazon remains specialized in the sales aspect of e-commerce and not in the delivery or transport of parcels. Thus, the American giant has signed various partnerships with specialists in the sector such as Air Transport International (with the purchase of shares in March 2016), ABX Air and Atlas Air. A total of 40 aircraft, including 12 Boeing 767-200BDSF and 28 Boeing 767-300BDSF, are operated, all in the colours of Amazon Air, formerly Amazon Prime Air. Amazon Air operates from 20 airports in 2018.
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| An Amazon Air aircraft in flight |
A major challenge
In order to have a new and more important source of revenue when shipping a package and to increase its capacity, the e-commerce giant intends to compete with other cargo airlines such as FedEx, UPS or DHL. Amazon can thus reduce costs and intermediaries and thus deliver its customers ever more quickly. Analysts believe that Amazon's delivery and shipping operations could take market share from companies such as FedEx and UPS. Earlier this week, Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx, said he did not consider Amazon a competitor.
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| 2 Prime Air aircraft (source:cargo forwarder) |
A future development
The aircraft are part of Amazon's delivery network, which also includes more than 10,000 trailer trucks that travel to and from more than 185 processing centers worldwide. In the coming years, Amazon Air expects to expand with the leasing of 17 new Boeing 767s by 2025, in addition to the 40 aircraft currently in operation. Amazon is expanding its entire delivery network with the order of 20,000 new vehicles, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Amazon is also looking for new partners and encourages the creation of delivery companies. In addition, Amazon Air is building a huge hub at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in the United States. It is estimated at $1.5 billion in total and is expected to open in 2021.
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| The map of the new Amazon Air’s cargo hub (source:bizjournals) |
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| An Amazon Prime van (Source:dfw.cbslocal) |
Discover how an airline composes its fleet
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