Amazon rumored to lease 20 planes, start its own flight operation

Sometimes it seems like Amazon delivers your packages before you've even thought about placing an order, but the online retailer might be taking a step to ensure that your Chewbacca hoodie or box of live crickets or whatever arrives even faster. The Seattle Times reports that Amazon is negotiating the lease of 20 Boeing 767 jets which it would use for its own air-cargo service. And not only would those planes be used to deliver Amazon's own smiling cardboard boxes, it could deliver for other companies as well, positioning it as a direct competitor to UPS and FedEx.

Sources told the paper that Amazon has been occasionally frustrated by the delays that can be caused by commercial shipping operations, especially as its business continues to grow. Ned Laird, the former managing director of Air Cargo Management Group, said:

"This is more of a warning shot across the bow of the express industry. [Amazon is saying] ‘We’re not getting what we need. We’ve told you what we need. We’ll go elsewhere for now.’"

Motherboard recently reported that Amazon has been quietly testing its own air cargo service since September, an Ohio-based operation that has the excellent code name "Aerosmith." Three months ago, an unnamed company (one which rhymes with "probably Amazon") contracted four Boeing 767s and has flown four freight flights a day out of the tiny Wilmington Air Park.

The airport was formerly used as a DHL Express hub and has "major sorting and cargo capabilities." The kind of capabilities that, say, Amazon could take full advantage of. Amazon neither confirmed nor denied its participation in Aerosmith, telling Motherboard:

"We’ve long utilized air capacity through a variety of great partners to transport packages and we expect that to continue.”

At least until it starts doing it for itself.