The growth of Amazon’s air cargo fleet and the number of daily flights has slowed in recent months, except at its Northern Kentucky hub and a few other geographic pockets. That reflects the mega-retailer’s more cautious approach to expansion in line with a recent pullback in warehouses because of decelerating e-commerce demand, according to research released Tuesday.
Amazon Air’s total flight activity only grew 3.8% from March through August, much less than the 14.3% growth in daily flights during the previous six months and 18.4% over the past year, the report from a team at DePaul University showed.
The retailer’s in-house cargo airline is operating about 194 flights per day in the U.S. and Europe compared to 187 in March. Amazon Air currently has 88 Boeing 767 medium widebody and 737-800 standard freighters in its fleet - about the same as in the spring - and will not reach 100 aircraft by the end of the year, as previously estimated, researchers said.
The reduced activity dovetails with recent news that the e-commerce giant has closed or canceled 44 warehouses this year on the heels of a $3.8 billion first-quarter loss. That is two and a half times more locations than previously identified for cancellation or delay in July.
The company is now rationalizing its air network because there are fewer warehouses to supply and fewer packages moving through the network as e-commerce growth normalizes to pre-pandemic levels.
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