Amazon's dedicated freighter service in India takes off

Same-day shipments will now be possible across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad as Amazon stepped into the dedicated freight service in India.

After the US, Canada and Europe, the e-commerce retail giant, launched its dedicated freight service in India on January 23, 2023, at Hyderabad's GMR.

Amazon has leased two Boeing 737-800 aircrafts operated by Quikjet Cargo Airlines Pvt to to ferry between Hyderabad, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Mumbai, said Akhil Saxena, Vice President- Customer Fulfillment, Amazon.

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“We've launched the first aircraft today and the second aircraft will be launched tomorrow which will serve the four cities," Sarah Rhoads, Vice President, Amazon Global Air told DH.

The livery for the first aircraft is designed according to the theme of Amazon Prime, the second aircraft however will have only Quikjet livery, sources from Quikjet and Amazon revealed. Quikjet’s B737 freighter carries up to 23 tonnes. It will be carrying 20,000 shipments from over one million sellers of Amazon in India.

Currently, the dedicated freighters will only carry shipments specific to Amazon. The aircraft will be operated and maintained by Quikjet, however, the Amazon India team will work in close collaboration to manage the capacity and route planning of the operations, the company revealed.

"There are some things that our team will manage from the US, one of them is a network control center that manages all our aircraft and flights across the globe," Rhoads added.

Hyderabad has emerged as the center of booming e-commerce demand and air traffic in the last few years. Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao, Minister of Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce and Information Technology, Telangana was also present at the launch event.

The fast delivery service via air cargo will be free for Amazon's Prime customers while non-Prime customers can also avail of the service by paying for it, he added.

The key drivers of the launch are faster shipping. "To able to provide more hours in a day for customers to order next day delivery and to be able to provide that next day promise on a much larger set of items improves proposition for both prime and non-prime customers," said Abhinav Singh, Director, Customer Fulfillment, Supply Chain & Amazon Transportation Services, Amazon India.

Amazon began its air cargo service in 2016 in the US and its air cargo network includes over 110 aircraft and 70 destinations. Amazon Air operates out of small regional airports close to its warehouses, helping the company meet orders for one- and two-day delivery.