Atlas to step away from Amazon CMI

Atlas Air is set to discontinue all CMI operations for Amazon in the next year as part of its “One Atlas” strategy to concentrate on high-utilization and more lucrative international flying. Atlas expects the twenty-five Amazon freighters, including seventeen 767-300Fs owned by Atlas’ leasing arm Titan Aviation Leasing and eight 737-800BCFs owned by AerCap, to gradually leave its operational fleet from June 2024 through June 2025, Atlas Chief Executive Michael Steen told Cargo Facts . [caption id="attachment_56868451" align="aligncenter" width="976"] Atlas Air flies seventeen Amazon 767-300 freighters. (Courtesy/Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport)[/caption] Atlas will redeploy its pilots from flying the Amazon aircraft to four 747-400Fs and four 777Fs joining the fleet later this year, Steen said. Amazon is likely transferring the 767s it had assigned to Atlas to ATSG’s ABX Air, which said earlier in May that it would add at least ten 767-300 freighters to its fleet on a CMI basis for Amazon starting in June. Growing 767 and 737 ops Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings and Amazon in 2016 announced a deal that saw Amazon dry lease twenty 767-300 freighters from Titan Aviation Leasing for ten years and place them with Atlas Air for CMI operation for at least seven years. The number of Amazon 767s operated by Atlas was reduced to seventeen after one 767-300BCF (25865) crashed in February 2019 and Amazon reassigned two 767-300BDSFs (28495 and 30109) from Atlas to ATSG’s Air Transport International that year. The eight 737-800BCFs are on lease from AerCap and were previously CMI operated by Atlas subsidiary Southern Air . Atlas merged Southern Air into the Atlas Air certificate in November 2021. Amazon remains an important customer and Titan has extended the dry leases to the e-tailer for sixteen out of the nineteen 767s for at least three more years, taking those aircraft to the end of their useful lives, Steen said. Apart from the Amazon medium widebodies, Atlas Air also owns and operates five 767 freighters , including two -300BDSFs (24318 and 26208) that serve as spares for the Amazon operation. Atlas is committed to its own 767-300F fleet and will use it to serve new opportunities, notably in South America, Steen said. One Atlas The One Atlas strategy, which Atlas implemented in 2023, calls for the company to “win the market” by focusing on areas including operational excellence, service quality, financial performance, its people, and sustainability. “Any growth has to be accretive,” Steen said, adding that the eight large-widebody freighters Atlas is taking on will help with the shift from low to high utilization. The company recently acquired two PW4000-powered production 747-400Fs from Silk Way West Airlines and two CF6-powered production -400Fs from Jetran. All four are undergoing preparations for entry into service for long-term customers, Steen said. Meanwhile, the four new 777Fs consist of two Atlas ordered itself last year and two that it will fly on a CMI basis for French shipping group CMA CGM . Atlas Air’s exit from CMI flying for Amazon leaves the e-commerce giant with three CMI providers for its 767-300Fs: ABX Air, Air Transport International and Canada-based Cargojet, to which Amazon has assigned two ex-WestJet -300BDSFs (25363 and 25576). It is unclear where the eight 737-800BCFs will end up. Amazon’s only other CMI operator for the type in the United States is Sun Country Airlines with twelve , while ASL Airlines Ireland operates two 737-800BCFs and seven -800SFs for the e-tailer.

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