Amazon Air cargo expansion has been forced to slow

In 2017, the head of Amazon's aviation division was replaced by Sarah Rhoads. She was previously in charge of Amazon's distribution centre operations in the UK and Europe and was seen as lacking knowledge of the air cargo sector. Amazon ushered in another wave of airline network expansion and development to further improve operational efficiency.

The expansion allowed Amazon to open six regional hubs between 2019 and 2021, flying more than 200 flights a day in the United States. More hiring followed. This development situation has been confronted with the novel coronavirus epidemic that has lasted for about three years, which has brought a huge burden to Amazon.

The high efficiency requirements of Amazon's airline network, even the minute-precise scheduling management, make it difficult for the crew, and the boundaries between Amazon and the pilot's responsibilities are increasingly blurred. Amazon's meticulous calculation of costs even requires airlines to provide certain fuel consumption information, change established routes to save costs, etc., which makes the partner airlines and their flight personnel feel stressed and unsafe.

Amazon Air's expansion has also drawn complaints from affected communities and residents. In 2019, Amazon launched the "Scythia" project in a mountain area of Florida to increase the number of aircraft at the local airport, aiming to provide local jobs and promote economic development while improving transportation capacity. This has also been approved by the relevant safety and environmental protection authorities. Since then, there will be 22 Amazon flights a day. In 2021, when Amazon announced it would increase its fleet here to 44 aircraft by 2027, residents of the communities involved objected strongly at hearings, saying it would affect their quality of life. Although Amazon has the right to expand capacity here under the terms of its original airport lease, the expansion plans are still pending.

Amazon has faced many similar obstacles. In 2021, the port authorities of New York and New Jersey negotiated to allow Amazon to lease an air cargo facility at Newark Liberty International Airport, but months of opposition protests followed. Local environmental groups, labor groups and politicians say the project could eliminate some union jobs and pollute the surrounding minority communities. Amazon and local port authorities shut down the project.

According to Wired, Amazon is currently optimizing its operations to ensure a sustainable and efficient web. This includes calculating the load rate of the aircraft, taking into account the weight, volume, route, staffing, supporting facilities and other supplies of the package.

For air capacity that is not fully loaded, Amazon said it would mimic the model of Amazon Web Services and sell excess capacity. However, attracting customers is not smooth sailing. Apart from the shipping contract signed by Amazon and the United States Postal Service in 2017, customers are few and far between.

Faced with slow revenue growth and economic uncertainty, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who took over last year, appears to have slowed expansion. The company has decided to suspend, close or delay plans to open more than 80 facilities in the United States. The company has fired Dave Clark, the executive in charge of building a massive logistics facility. Recently, Amazon has also embarked on a mass firing spree.

As for the airline business, while Amazon Air continues to add flights, its growth rate has slowed from 30 percent in 2021 to around 5 percent in the first half of 2022, according to Cargo Facts Consulting. Amazon's investment in the aviation sector continues. In October, Amazon announced a partnership with Hawaiian Airlines, which will operate Airbus A330 aircraft on Amazon's behalf. At the same time, several former Amazon employees have told the media that the company has been discussing for years the possibility of buying one of the outsourced airlines and starting its own airline, preferably by hiring non-union pilots.