Amazon is expanding its airplane fleet, diminishing further its reliance on major delivery services like UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service.
The company recently said it will lease 10 Boeing 767s planes, bringing its total fleet to 50 with the goal of getting orders to people faster and more reliably.
Amazon's fleet of planes is far smaller than those at UPS and FedEx, which number in the hundreds, but it's pushed in recent years to close that gap and gain more control over deliveries.
Amazon (AMZN) launched a program over the summer that allows contractors around the country to deliver Amazon packages in vans stamped with the Amazon smile logo. It also plans to open a package sorting hub at Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas next year and another at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 2021.
FedEx CEO Frederick Smith said this week that he didn't see Amazon Air as a competitor and that it was "fantastical" to think it could disrupt FedEx.
A number of industry watchers see a more significant threat.
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4 comments:
If they were really smart your Prime membership would include an at home 3D printer and the crap would just spit out of it. No manufacturing no shipping. If they want to get into transportation picking up and recycling all the junk maybe lucrative.
Threat? It is just doing business the American way.
This is what did the postal service in. Back in the early 1970's they were at this very situation to purchase their own fleet of aircraft to transport their products. They chose not to and use other couriers(fed ex UPS) to transport. This was a tremendous mistake on their part and began the downward spiral they are in today. They use the employees retirement and benefits as an excuse but ask how much they spend in money paid to their competitors to use their aircraft. Since when is it a "good" idea to rely on competitors as part of your daily operations??
It's going to cost them more. But they should pay more. It's ALL Chinese manufactured goods anyway.
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