Amazon’s private cargo airline, created to expedite online deliveries, has launched its first dedicated South American route with the help of two other carriers: 21 Air, a small U.S. freight operator, and Avianca, a major Latin American airline with a strong cargo arm.
Amazon announced earlier this month the signing of Avianca Cargo as a customer for its new service that offers unused freighter space to third-party shippers. Avianca is booking shipments on Amazon Air backhaul flights from Bogotá, Colombia, to Miami that otherwise would be empty.
The news release was issued by Amazon Air Cargo, the business unit that sells wholesale air cargo service to freight forwarders and other logistics operators, to highlight it is open for business to shippers in Colombia and the region.
The announcement didn’t focus on the fact that in-house airline Amazon Air, which has an extensive transport network in the United States and more limited footprints in Europe and India, is now operating internationally, bringing to Colombia inbound parcels filled with goods ordered on its marketplace. The daily flights, which began on April 8 utilizing a Boeing 767-300 converted freighter, mark the first time Amazon Air has conducted cross-border flights, excluding activity in close-knit Europe.
Amazon Air relies on partner airlines because it isn’t certified to fly commercial aircraft and doesn’t have its own pilots. It has a fleet of nearly 100 converted freighters, including 10 Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 737-800 narrowbody aircraft.
FreightWaves identified 21 Air as the carrier operating the Miami-Bogota route on Amazon Air’s behalf, based on flight data from AirNav Radar. 21 Air, which began flying for Amazon in November, is based at Miami International Airport. It has a fleet of 16 Boeing 767s, six of which were supplied by Amazon. Amazon spokeswoman Gabriela Castillo confirmed that 21 Air is the underlying carrier for the Bogota service.
21 Air also operates in Amazon’s traditional parcel network between San Juan, Puerto Rico; Miami and Amazon’s superhub at Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport in Ohio.
Avianca Cargo, which operates six Airbus A330-200 freighter aircraft in addition to managing shipments carried by the airline’s passenger fleet, said the northbound Amazon flights will be used to transport flowers and other products to the U.S. market. Miami is the largest U.S. gateway for fresh flowers.
Amazon has been offering international shipping to Colombia since 2019. Prior to the new dedicated air cargo service it relied on ocean freight or other commercial airlines to move products to fulfillment warehouses in the country. In late May, it introduced the Amazon Prime paid subscription service for shoppers in Colombia. Membership includes free delivery from the U.S. to Colombia on eligible orders for tens of millions of items
Mercado Libre is the largest e-commerce retailer in Latin America, including Colombia. Amazon also competes in the country with China’s AliExpress and local online platforms.
Amazon has focused this year on finding areas of opportunity in Latin America where there is both demand to move Amazon sales and third-party export shipments to defray operating costs, General Manager Tom Bradley said on a recent episode of The Loadstar podcast.
“And we’ve done that in Colombia” where there is a “booming” e-commerce market and strong flows of perishable shipments to the United States, he said. “It’s a key route for us [because] we can combine synergies for Amazon customers with Amazon Air Cargo customers in the form of Avianca.”
Amazon Air Cargo entered the for-hire airfreight market in September. Other customers listed on its website include Apex Logistics, a subsidiary of Kuehne+Nagel; DHL Express; and Miami-based ALK Global Logistic.
Bradley reiterated that non-Amazon shippers benefit from Amazon’s rigorous delivery standards, dense network, spare aircraft and technology, which allow the company to quickly adjust capacity to unexpected circumstances or demand fluctuations. During the run-up to Mother’s Day in May, for example, Amazon Air implemented contingency plans to get a freighter assigned to the Miami-Bogotoa route back in service within 16 hours after it experienced a mechanical issue. Flower volumes were heavy during that period, but Amazon was able to quickly catch up on the temporary backlog, he said.
Shippers can tender loads on an ad hoc basis, reserve guaranteed blocks of space or charter entire aircraft through Amazon Air Cargo. The majority of business in Europe is charter volume, particularly to European islands like Malta, Cyprus and Guernsey, Bradley told The Loadstar podcast. In Europe, Amazon uses several Boeing 737-800s.
“Building out our scheduled service and giving customers access to the network that exists for Amazon customers are really the key focus right now,” Bradley said in the interview.
Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.
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