Take a look at Amazon One, the retail giant's first branded cargo plane

[midian182]

Amazon is currently testing its Prime Air drones in the UK to avoid FAA regulations, but while the UAV program may not arrive on US shores for some time, the online retail giant will soon be launching its first branded cargo airplane: Amazon One.

The company is showcasing the Boeing 767-300 this weekend at Seattle’s SeaFair Air Show. It will be flown and operated by Atlas Air Worldwide, which provides Amazon’s air cargo services.

The cargo plane, which displays the Prime Air and Amazon smile logos, is one of 40 Boeing 767s that the company is leasing from Atlas and its other cargo partner, Air Transport Services Group. There are currently 11 dedicated planes flying for the company, with the remainder rolling out over the coming years.

“Creating an air transportation network is expanding our capacity to ensure great delivery speeds for our Prime members for years to come,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, in a press release. “I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate the inaugural flight than in our hometown at Seafair alongside Amazon employees and Seattle residents.”

With its fleet of planes, 4000 truck trailers, and Uber-style Flex delivery vans - along with the eventual arrival of drones and container ships - the big question is whether the logistics network Amazon is building will ultimately see it abandon partners FedEx and UPS altogether, and perhaps even start competing aginst the two giants with its own delivery service.

Jeff Bezos says this isn’t Amazon's intentions, claiming the firm just needs the additional capacity, but, as it proved with AWS, if there’s an opportunity to move into a new, money-making business then Amazon won’t stand idly by.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/65866-take-look-amazon-one-retail-giant-first-branded.html

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

"Jeff Bezos says this isn’t Amazon's intentions, claiming the firm just needs the additional capacity, but, as it proved with AWS, if there’s an opportunity to move into a new, money-making business then Amazon won’t stand idly by."

Of course this is their business plan. Soon there will be Prime Airlines, Prime Cruises, and Prime Hotels. If you work for UPS, FedEx or any other industry that does ANY business whatsoever with Amazon you should be very, very afraid. As was said just this week it will soon be a trillion-plus dollar company.

 

[Uncle Al]

OK, let's start the office pool now. How long before they crash the first one? Maybe they can team up with Tesla and remove control fly it ..... somewhere else before it crashes!

 

[Greg S]

OK, let's start the office pool now. How long before they crash the first one? Maybe they can team up with Tesla and remove control fly it ..... somewhere else before it crashes!

Probably not very soon. They are merely paying for branding and hauling of cargo aboard an existing company's fleet of 767s. This isn't a new idea nor is it any different from the thousands of commercial flights that are successful daily.

Also, remote flying of cargo planes wouldn't be that hard to do, it's just expensive and hard to get approval to do so.

 

[captaincranky]

I avoid Amazon if at all possible. CDs, movies, books, and such, I buy from the small dealers in the "Amazon Marketplace". Big ticket items, I'll buy anyplace BUT Amazon.

Last weekend I had my first experience with, "Amazon Logistics". This resulted in a DVD being delivered a day early, (got it Saturday instead of Sunday when it was tracked to arrive), but it was thrown carelessly in the middle of my porch. I was kind of pleasantly surprised that no one picked it up and tried to sell it for crack.