American online retailer Amazon presented its first cargo plane, the first of what should become a entire fleet. The Boeing 767-300, transformed into a transportation plane, prominently features “Prime Air” on its side, alongside the Amazon logo.
Lower shipping costs
The Boeing is the first of 40 planes Amazon will lease in an attempt to take further control of the shipping part of its package delivery service. Cargo airline Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings‘ crew will pilot the plane.
Planes are the next target for the online retail giant as it wants to reduce the list of things it outsources. The main reason is that package delivery costs continue to rise.
Amazon spent 3.36 billion dollars (3.03 billion euro) in shipping in its second quarter, up 44 % compared to last year. However, turnover only grew 31 % by comparison. The company already has a fleet of vans and couriers to do its “last mile” deliveries.
