Michael Seto/Business Insider
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The report, citing anonymous sources, said that Amazon is in talks with Boeing to lease at least 20 767 air-delivery jets.
The bigger goal is to create a logistics department that can potentially replace a lot of the work that's been outsourced to USPS, FedEx, and UPS and lower the risk of shipment delays, which has been a problem in previous holiday seasons.
Amazon wasn't immediately available for comment.
This is the latest in a series of reports indicating Amazon's ambition to build out its own logistics and transportation business. Amazon is constantly looking for ways to cut costs, and having its own in-house logistics unit could help save in delivery expenses.
Last month, Vice reported that Amazon may be testing its own air-transportation services in Ohio. Trade publication DV Velocity reported in October that Amazon has hired a top recruiting firm to find a "management-level executive" in the logistics space, as well.
Those reports came out shortly after ChannelAdvisor, an e-commerce software maker, noted the quick increase in Amazon's logistics facilities worldwide.
"It seems that Amazon is doing the math and is cutting out third party carriers like UPS and FedEx in Prime Heavy areas," it said at the time.
On top of that, it was reported that Amazon bought thousands of its own, Amazon-branded trailer trucks earlier this month, while it's already been reported many times that the company's testing in-house deliveries in some parts of the country.
But the new venture won't come cheap. The Seattle Times report said that leasing a new 767 jets could cost at last $600,000 a month, with a used one going for around $300,000 a month.
Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.