A wide-body airliner with Amazon’s Prime logo lands at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the United States, December 20, 2016. Picture taken December 20, 2016. To match Insight AMAZON.COM-SHIPPING/ Portal/Mark Makela
Portal/Mark Makela
Amazon announced on Monday that it will shift its air freight business to India, bringing new growth for the company’s logistics arm even as it seeks to cut costs in other areas of its business.
The e-merchant uses two Boeing 737-800 aircraft flown by Quikjet Cargo Airlines to ship packages between Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Amazon Air will enable the company to offer faster deliveries to customers in India, Sarah Rhoads, vice president of Amazon Global Air, said in a statement.
The launch of Amazon Air in India comes amid a wide-ranging scrutiny of the company’s spending as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy faces the deteriorating economic outlook and slowing retail sales. Last week, Amazon began the latest phase of the largest layoffs in its 28-year history, which is expected to result in the layoff of 18,000 employees. Jassy has tried to cut costs in other ways, including imposing a hiring freeze on Amazon’s entire workforce, canceling some projects and pausing warehouse expansion.
While trying to cut spending, Jassy has previously said the company intends to continue pursuing long-term opportunities and continue to invest in its stores, advertising and cloud computing businesses, among others.
Amazon Air, which debuted in 2016, outsources operations to several airlines. The service gives Amazon better control over the speed and cost of deliveries, which the company has accelerated from two days to one and the same day in more parts of the US
Amazon Air started in the US and then expanded into Europe. India is Amazon Air’s third market and first office in Asia.
Amazon has been working for years to expand its presence in India, which is poised to become one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets in the world.
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