Amazon Airlines may be coming to the sky near you soon. The web based retailer has announced the completion an agreement to lease 20 Boeing aircraft from Air Transport Services. This agreement will help the e-commerce company to build out its delivery network capacity. The agreement comes at a time when Amazon has been busy investing heavily in its shipping network infrastructure. The investments include a new fleet of trucks and new sorting centers popping up across the country. The talks have reportedly been going on since the summer of 2015. Amazon claims the agreement is not aimed at competing with delivery companies like FedEx and UPS, but to enhance their ability to deliver customer packages faster. It does seem that the agreement with Air Transport Services Group will provide Amazon with increased leverage when negotiating new contracts with those carriers going forward.
Amazon Airlines fleet plans
The initial agreement calls for Amazon to lease 20 Boeing air freighters. The lease terms call for Air Transport Services to operate the aircraft for a period of five years. The terms also will allow Amazon to acquire up to 20% of the company’s shares over the same five year period. Will we see an actual Amazon Airlines taking to the skies anytime soon? Amazon Prime currently allows customers free 2 day shipping on its merchandise for a $99 annual membership fee, perhaps you could enroll in a future Amazon Prime Passenger service? This service might guaranty you transportation from point A to point B within a 2 day window. As Amazon continues to expand its branding and offerings, the sky does really seem to be endless for the web giant. Of course, if we were to see a large spike back up in oil prices, this could crimp consumer spending and increase the operating costs of the large Boeing cargo aircraft.
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