Amazon has bought 11 passenger planes from Delta and WestJet that will be converted into cargo planes, according to a press release from the Seattle online retailer. This is the first time Amazon bought planes straight rather than just renting them and comes as the airline struggles with a slowdown in demand during the covid-19 pandemic.
The 11 aircraft are all Boeing 767-300 aircraft, seven from Delta and four from WestJet. The WestJet aircraft are already being converted into cargo aircraft and will join Amazon Air’s fleet this year, while the Delta aircraft will become part of Amazon’s network in 2022.
Amazon Air was recently launched in 2016 established hubs in Germany and the US, along with other countries, because it wants to rely less on companies like FedEx and UPS to ship goods around the world. While Amazon Air now owns eleven aircraft, the company still relies on third-party suppliers to operate its aircraft.
Amazon did not disclose how much it paid for the planes, but airlines tried to unload the planes older aircraft as the demand for passenger flights continues to suffer worldwide. The covid-19 pandemic has forced many airlines to make difficult choices, and although vaccines are currently being rolled out, there is no guarantee consumer demand will bounce back immediately in 2021.
The US still has astonishingly high number of coronavirus cases, with more than 21 million cases of covid-19 since the pandemic began, and more than 357,000 U.S. deaths. TSA roughly cleared 1.3 million passengers on Sunday, January 3, at the end of the holiday weekend, the highest number since the start of the pandemic, although it is still about half of the passengers who checked it on the same day 2020.
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Tthe loss of the airline industry was a gain throughout the pandemic. Americans stay more at home and companies that provide online shopping has borne fruit.
“Our goal is to continue to deliver to customers across the U.S. the way they expect from Amazon, and purchasing our own aircraft is a natural next step toward that goal,” said Sarah Rhoads, vice president of Amazon Global Air, said in a statement. published online.
“If we own a mix of leased and aircraft in our growing fleet, we can better manage our operations, which helps us keep pace with our customer promises. ‘