Fulfilled: Amazon 767 fleet growth ahead of peak

Amazon Air is on track to finish 2021 with a net addition of fifteen 767-300BDSFs and multiple smaller freighters, with much of the capacity arriving in the final months of the year during what is historically the peak online shopping period. So far in 2021, Amazon has taken ten 767-300BDSFs on lease from Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM), and placed them all with Air Transport International (ATI) for CMI operation, the latest being unit 29605 (ex-American Airlines), which began flying in late November. It will soon add an eleventh (29604) which recently arrived back in Wilmington (ILN) Nov. 18. [caption id="attachment_417071" align="alignright" width="560"] Amazon now has more than fifty of its own 767-300 freighters. (Photo/Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport)[/caption] That is not all the widebody capacity Amazon has brought online this year. The e-tailer has now deployed into service three of the four ex-WestJet 767-300ERs it bought last year, with one (25274) in CMI service with ATI and two (25576 and 25363) in Canada with new CMI partner Cargojet . The fourth aircraft (25246) recently completed conversion and landed at ILN Nov. 19. Around Christmas last year, Amazon purchased seven more 767-300ERs , this time from Delta Air Lines. This tranche of aircraft will begin flying in 2022, with two (30575 and 30573) having arrived in Mexico City (MEX) in January and November, respectively, ahead of conversion with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and another (30595) heading to IAI’s own facility in Tel Aviv (TLV) in May 2021. On the narrowbody front, the only change in the U.S. so far is that the eight 737-800BCFs that Southern Air had been operating on a CMI basis are now flying under the Atlas Air certificate, following the completion of a multi-year integration of Southern into its parent in November. In Europe, the fleet of 737-800Fs emblazoned in Amazon Air livery continues to expand as Amazon grows its CMI operations. The company has leased three 737-800SFs from Aero Capital Solutions and placed them in service with ASL Airlines Ireland . A fourth aircraft (30284, ex-Air Europa) is in Shannon (SNN) and will soon also enter service for Amazon. Another major development in Amazon’s air operations this year was the e-tailer’s move into turboprop feeders . Five ATR 72-500Fs in bulk freighter configuration now have Amazon-style registrations and three recently began CMI service with Florida-based Silver Airways in November, flying from Fort Worth Alliance Airport (AFW) to Des Moines (DSM) and Albuquerque (ABQ). As of Nov. 29, Amazon’s active in-service CMI fleet includes around fifty 767-300Fs, twenty-five 737-800Fs and three ATR 72-500Fs. Cargo Facts Consulting estimates that the Amazon fleet will have around 100 aircraft by the end of 2021, including freighters flying on an ACMI basis. Amazon’s growing air network is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the e-tailer’s expanding end-to-end logistics footprint. Amazon, which also opened its own primary air hub in Cincinnati (CVG) in August, expects to become the “largest package delivery carrier” in the U.S. by the end of this year or in early 2022, according to an interview on CNBC today with Dave Clark, CEO of worldwide consumer at Amazon. That is not to say that the scale of Amazon’s delivery network will rival that of FedEx or UPS across the express air mode of transportation. As of last summer, Amazon was operating about 160 flights per day, or 4,800 per month, in the United States, according to an e-commerce report from Cargo Facts Consulting . FedEx’s monthly flight volume is more than triple at 15,000 and UPS was operating 12,000 flights each month as of mid-2021, according to CFC. Online retail sales during the post-Thanksgiving holiday period, which Amazon dominates, are so far tracking last year’s record highs generated in the U.S. Over the course of Black Friday, online sales clocked in at $8.9 billion, a significant increase from $7.43 billion in 2019, but down slightly from the record $9 billion set last year, according to a report from Adobe Digital Insights.

Fulfilled: Amazon 767 fleet growth ahead of peak

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