Amazon, the giant of online shopping, has started offering its cargo service in India in an effort to speed up delivery. Two specifically designed cargo aircraft with a carrying capacity of 20,000 items will be used by the cargo service, Amazon Air. After the US and Europe, India is now the third market that is serviced by Amazon Air. The dedicated freight service was originally introduced in the US in 2016, and Amazon also tested Air in the UK market.
Details about to speed up deliveries, Amazon introduces a dedicated air freight service in India
The Amazon Air fleet, which has approximately 110 freight planes and serves more than 70 destinations worldwide, was first introduced in the US in 2016. First, Bengaluru-based Quickjet Cargo Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 aircraft would be used for Amazon Air service in India. Initial coverage would be limited to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
“Amazon Air arrives in India at a crucial moment. The delivery experience for our Indian customers will only get better thanks to our investment in Amazon Air. Additionally, the launch will help more than 1.1 million Indian vendors, supporting the expansion of related industries like transportation and aviation, according to Akhil Saxena, President of Customer Fulfillment (APAC, MENA & LATAM), Amazon.
Strangely, despite the fact that the service is known as Amazon Air, the planes still bear the Prime Air logo. In the US, Texas and California are served by Prime Air, which was established in 2022 to handle drone delivery services.
The company claims that because it now has two dedicated freight planes under its control and won’t have to totally rely on the cargo services of airlines, its dedicated cargo service enables it to be more flexible with cargo shipments.
While Amazon claimed that this would speed up deliveries and make the company more productive, it did not make it clear by how much. Customers will be able to order things a little later in the evening and still count on next-day delivery, according to the statement on the Air cargo service.
The latest expansion of Amazon’s services in India should not come as a surprise given that the country already has over five million Amazon Prime subscribers and is one of the company’s largest and fastest-growing international markets, according to a Bernstein report. Amazon has already invested $6.5 billion in India.
The Amazon Air service was initially offered in four metro areas since, according to the report, clients from Indian metro areas have a tendency to be loyal and return for repeat purchases.
However, Amazon Air would initially only be used for Amazon’s own deliveries, the company stated, unlike its logistics service, which is available to other e-commerce businesses.
The opening of Amazon Air in Hyderabad is also a boost for Telangana, which attracted investments totaling $21,000 crore during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
One of Amazon’s favourite cities is now Hyderabad, which is home to the company’s largest campus in the entire world and where the company has committed to investing $36,600 crore to build a data centre for its Amazon Web Services division.
Currently, Amazon operates 50 fulfilment centres around the nation, including five in Telangana.
