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By Alex Lennane
Amazon Air has started a double daily freighter flight to Miami, operated by Atlas Air, despite concern about pilot numbers.
Shuttling from Miami, between Amazon’s favoured destinations such as its Cincinnati hub, Ontario and Houston, it is using Atlas’s now 21-strong fleet of 767-300Fs earmarked for ...
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William J Candee IV
October 11, 2018 at 9:59 pmA couple of points. First, 20 of the 21 Atlas “Amazon” aircraft have in fact been placed in service. Planespotters.com is a great resource, but if it says differently, it’s wrong. The 21st aircraft was just delivered and has been in Amarillo, Texas since 10/9/18 to be painted. Figure about two weeks to do that. Second, 13 of the 21 aircraft were converted by Israel Aircraft Industries/Bedek in TLV, not by Boeing, including the 21st aircraft (N1487A). Third, the Atlas pilots’ union, in negotiations for a new contract, has been saying for two years that Atlas will not or does not have enough pilots to perform their flights. The same union, in the same situation at ABX Air, says the same thing about ABX. ABX Air, however, only flies 6 of the 20 Amazon aircraft leased to Amazon by an ATSG subsidiary. The other 14 are flown by ATSG subsidiary ATI, which is represented by a different union, ALPA, and has largely-good labor relations and happy pilots. And plenty of them. Fourth, not all 20 of the “Amazon”-service aircraft are dry-leased to Amazon, nor were they all expected to be operating simultaneously. Amazon builds into the network at least one as a “hot spare”, and Atlas maintains two as maintenance spares. Many of these aircraft have flown enough that HMVs are becoming necessary, and both ATSG and Atlas are rotating aircraft through HMVs. The Atlas aircraft aren’t “hiding” in maintenance. Two at a time are being rotated through maintenance, and these visits have zero effect on the network, because they are planned and covered. (1321A and 1709A are currently at VQQ for maint. 1321 recently rotated in, replacing an aircraft that recently rotated out.) Amazon has been very careful not to add routes before there are plenty of aircraft to cover them, and each of ATSG and Atlas have added two aircraft to its fleet beyond the Atlas-dry-leased ones precisely to compensate for anticipated-or-unanticipated maintenance needs. At Atlas, every single Amazon-network aircraft, other than the hot spare and the two in maintenance at VQQ, is either currently in the air or has operated an Amazon flight in the last 24 hours.
Alex Lennane
October 12, 2018 at 7:46 amThank you so much for that update. It is really helpful. We asked Atlas a couple of weeks ago, but did not receive a reply. Thanks for helping provide an accurate picture.
Jeremy David Young
October 13, 2018 at 11:54 amOkay, well I have a solution to the problem for “Prime Air.” Since Amazon is a large entity and has billions of Dollars, why do they not pay for someone like… Oh I do not know… Me, to learn how to fly and Pilot one of their Aircraft for Atlas Air? I am 40 Years Old, have wanted to become a Pilot all my life, since watching the Space Shuttle Challenger launch and unfortunately explode. I was 6 years old at that time. Either way, the cost of Flight Training is outrageous these days. Since Amazon has abundance in Cash, they souls do that. I would gladly volunteer for said venture and fly to my hearts content. Heck, I would do it for free if it meant I could fulfill a passionate dream.