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Amazon Buys Extra Planes to Speed Up International Delivery

Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 11:43 by Graham Miller

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Within the next two years, e-commerce giant Amazon will see its fleet of cargo planes almost double from its current size, hitting 70 aircraft by 2021, according to CNET.

 

The main purpose of this expansion is to ensure that its Prime delivery services around the world are able to live up to customer expectations and provide super-speedy shipping, even if products need to be sourced from further afield than the nearest fulfilment centre.

 

Amazon recently committed to spending over half a billion dollars on overhauling its delivery services, of which this procurement of new cargo planes represents a relatively small portion.

 

Investments like these make it difficult for competing companies to keep pace with Amazon, particularly when it comes to offering safe shopping online to consumers around the world.

 

One thing which may prove to be a problem for Amazon as it increases the focus it puts on air freight is that the carbon footprint of such activities is increasingly seen as excessive by environmentally conscious consumers. Of course, slower forms of shipping also make a major contribution to greenhouse gas emissions as well, so there is no easy answer to hand at the moment.

 

Amazon’s other aerial delivery ambitions are on a much smaller scale, at least in terms of the craft involved. Delivery drones have been undergoing testing in the UK for the past couple of years, and they may well be rolled out as an option in certain areas within the next half decade, so long as regulations governing airspace use allow it.

 

For as long as Prime includes free fast delivery for subscribers, Amazon will need to keep finding new ways like this to satisfy the promises it has made to its most loyal paying customers.