Amazon runs trial air operation in Europe

Based on reports from the British press, e-commerce giant Amazon may be on the move, literally, to launch its own logistics network in Europe. A story in UK daily The Evening Standard indicates that Amazon, working with Germany-based forwarder and logistics services provider DB Schenker, is using a 737 freighter to connect cities in Poland, Germany, and the UK, with plans to expand the trial to include more freighters, and destinations in Italy and Spain.

After a little digging, Cargo Facts has found that the 737-300F is being operated by charter carrier ASL France on a Monday-Saturday, 6x weekly schedule between Wroclaw, Poland (WRO), Doncaster, UK (DSA), and Kassel, Germany (KSF). All three of these cities are located near Amazon’s fulfillment centers: WRO is 12 minutes from two Wroclaw fulfillment centers, DSA is 18 minutes from two Doncaster centers, and KSF is a little over an hour away from Amazon’s two centers in Bad Hersfeld, Germany. The second Doncaster fulfillment center opened in October 2015, Amazon says. Coincidence? Probably not.

As Cargo Facts reported earlier this month, Amazon has also been conducting trial air operations in the US and is believed to have begun the process of setting up an own-controlled US domestic air network based on a fleet of twenty 767 freighters. Whether it will make a similar move in Europe remains to be seen.