Amazon launches dedicated air cargo service for faster deliveries in India

• E-commerce giant Amazon on Monday launched its cargo service Amazon Air in India with two dedicated cargo aircraft with a capacity of 20,000 packages.
• India is now the third market after the US and Europe to be covered by the Amazon Air service.
• The Amazon Air service will initially be available in four cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

In a bid to speed up deliveries, online commerce behemoth Amazon has launched its cargo service in India. The cargo service – Amazon Air – will have two dedicated cargo aircraft with a capacity of 20,000 packages. India is now the third market after the US and Europe to be covered by the Amazon Air service. The dedicated freight service was first launched in the US in 2016 and the other market where Amazon tried Air was in the United Kingdom.

First launched in 2016 in the US, the Amazon Air fleet consists of over 110 freight aircraft that covers more than 70 destinations across the world. To begin with, Amazon Air service in India will consist of a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, operated by Bengaluru-based Quickjet Cargo Airlines. It will initially cover four cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

“Amazon Air comes to India at an important time. Our investment in Amazon Air will only further improve the delivery experience for our customers in India. Moreover, the launch will support over 1.1 million sellers in India, enabling growth for ancillary businesses such as transportation and aviation,” said Akhil Saxena, President – Customer Fulfilment (APAC, MENA & LATAM), Amazon.

Curiously, while the service is branded Amazon Air, the aircraft still sport the Prime Air branding. Prime Air looks after drone delivery services and was launched in 2022, serving Texas and California in the US.

More flexibility, faster deliveries

According to the company, its dedicated cargo service allows it to be more flexible with cargo shipments, since it now has two dedicated freight aircraft in its control and won’t have to rely completely on cargo services of airlines.

While Amazon said that this will reduce the delivery times and allow it to be more efficient, it did not exactly specify how much the delivery times will reduce by. However, it said that the Air cargo service will enable customers to order products a little later in the evening and still expect next-day delivery.

Amazon has already invested $6.5 billion in India and the latest expansion of its services in the country should come as no surprise – it has over five million Amazon Prime subscribers and India is one of the biggest and fastest growing overseas markets of the company, according to a Bernstein report.

The report also states that customers from Indian metros tend to be sticky, meaning they come back for repeat orders, which explains why the Amazon Air service has been launched in four metros to begin with.

However, unlike its logistics service which is open to other e-commerce companies, Amazon Air will only be for Amazon’s own deliveries for now, the company said.

The launch of Amazon Air in Hyderabad also comes as a shot in the arm for Telangana, which bagged ₹21,000 crore worth investments at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Hyderabad has also emerged as one of the favourite cities of Amazon – the city houses Amazon’s largest campus in the world, and Amazon has also committed an investment of ₹36,600 crore towards setting up a data centre under the Amazon Web Services business.

Amazon currently has five fulfillment centres in Telangana, and 50 fulfillment centres across the country.

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