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New Amazon cargo flight paves way for next-day delivery in Hawaii

E-commerce giant using aircraft to ship pineapples back to US mainland

Eric Kulisch
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Amazon Air mostly utilizes its fleet of Airbus A330-300 converted freighters to transport e-commerce packages to Hawaii. The planes are operated For Amazon by Alaska Airlines. (Photo: Shutterstock/Parkdolly)
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Key Takeaways:

  • Amazon launched next-day delivery on Oahu by adding a new late-night flight, significantly improving its service speed for island customers.
  • The company is expanding its air cargo operations, including selling excess freight capacity to third-party shippers and facilitating international cargo transfers.
  • Amazon is continuing its logistics infrastructure growth with plans for a new distribution center on Kauaʻi and breaking ground on a large fulfillment center in Connecticut.
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The debut of Amazon’s next-day package delivery on Oahu last month was made possible by a new late-night flight that extends the order cutoff window for shoppers, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed.

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) opened a delivery station in Honolulu more than a year ago and was bringing in packages twice a day from the U.S. mainland using two widebody jets that belong to its private cargo airline. Most of the 3.5 million packages delivered so far took at least two days to reach customers. Amazon recently added another flight that departs the continental U.S. at a later time, allowing it to offer a later cutoff window for loading outbound shipments and still meet its next-day promise, Hawai’i Public Radio reported. 

The A330-300 aircraft being used, which were converted from passenger configuration before entering service with Amazon, are operated by Alaska Airlines. Hawaiian Airlines originally had the contract to support Amazon’s air network, but it was acquired by Alaska Air last year. This week the airlines received a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing for the integration of training, policies, procedures and manuals. Amazon isn’t certified to fly its own aircraft. 

Various airports support the Honolulu flights, including bases in California and the company’s main hub at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, according to online flight tracking data. 

A local Amazon manager told the news outlet that the Honolulu operation has exceeded expectations for the first year of service and expanding to next-day delivery happened faster than anticipated. 

Meanwhile, Amazon’s one-year-old wholesale air cargo business that sells excess airfreight capacity to third-party shippers, is moving thousands of Maui Gold pineapples from the state to the mainland every week in under 12 hours, local TV station KHON2 reported in September. Much of the unused space Amazon offers on Amazon Air flights is on backhaul flights to logistics hubs, which are mostly empty because Amazon operate a one-way, B2C parcel shipping network

In July, Air Premia, a passenger airline based in South Korea, entered into a transportation services agreement with Amazon Air Cargo under which it transfers belly cargo to Amazon at Honolulu airport for onward carriage to the continental United States. Once at U.S. hubs, the Air Premia shipments are relayed to 45 cities, including Atlanta and Houston, through the Amazon Air network.

Amazon Air Cargo also offers service to Columbia and the Dominican Republic. Avianca Cargo, the cargo division of Columbia-based passenger airline Avianca, is booking shipments on Amazon flights returning to the U.S. 

New Kaua‘i warehouse

In related news, Amazon appears to be moving forward with plans to build a distribution center on Kaua‘i, another Hawaiian island, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

A real estate development firm has plans to buy 14.6 acres in Līhuʻe to develop the 42,000-square-foot warehouse in a planned business park.

The real estate firm behind the warehouse project is Phoenix-based BH DevCo, which specializes in large e-commerce distribution facilities and has developed Amazon warehouses in Las Vegas, New Mexico and Oregon.

Documents filed with the county for the project don’t name Amazon but include details unique to Amazon and multiple sources familiar with the project identified Amazon as the company, according to the report. An Amazon spokesman neither confirmed nor denied efforts to develop the facility. 

Connecticut fulfillment center

Thousands of miles to the east, Amazon last week broke ground on a 3.2 million-square foot fulfillment center in Connecticut, according to a blog post by CBIA, the state’s largest business organization.

The facility, which will have the ability to process 800,000 parcels per day at full capacity, It will be the seventh Amazon’s seventh fulfillment or sortation center in the state.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.

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Eric Kulisch

Eric is the Parcel and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He was runner up for News Journalist and Supply Chain Journalist of the Year in the Seahorse Freight Association's 2024 journalism award competition. In December 2022, Eric was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist. He won the group's Environmental Journalist of the Year award in 2014 and was the 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. He has appeared on Marketplace, ABC News and National Public Radio to talk about logistics issues in the news. Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com Eric is the Parcel and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He was runner up for News Journalist and Supply Chain Journalist of the Year in the Seahorse Freight Association's 2024 journalism award competition. In December 2022, Eric was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist. He won the group's Environmental Journalist of the Year award in 2014 and was the 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. He has appeared on Marketplace, ABC News and National Public Radio to talk about logistics issues in the news. Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com