Amazon strengthens link to local aviation company

A provider of medium wide-body aircraft leasing, ATSG recently announced an agreement to lease 12 additional Boeing 767-300 converted freighter aircraft to Amazon.com Services LLC.

One of the 12 aircraft was delivered May 29 and the remaining 11 will be delivered next year, ATSG said. All 12 will be leased to Amazon for 10 years, with options for Amazon to extend the leases for three additional years.

MORE: Coronavirus: Air Force colonel returns from 'invisible war'

Cargo Aircraft Management (CAM), ATSG’s aircraft leasing subsidiary, today leases 27 767 aircraft total to Amazon, including six leased during 2019.

The announcement was first made June 5 on Twitter by Cargo Aircraft Management Inc. (CAM), a subsidiary of Air Transport Service Group.

In December 2018, Amazon committed to lease those six aircraft plus an additional four 767s from CAM by the end of 2020, ATSG said.

So the projected number of 767s CAM will have leased to Amazon is 31 by the end of 2020 and 42 by the end of 2021.

Geographically, Wilmington makes sense within Amazon’s network, given the facility’s proximity to the busy Amazon hub at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport, Wilmington Air Park officials have said.

“This new commitment is further evidence of Amazon’s confidence in our ability to support its expanding U.S. air network,” Rich Corrado, ATSG president and chief executive, said in a release. “We look forward to supporting Amazon with additional aircraft capacity and to generating additional revenues and cash flows for our shareholders from our unique asset and service offerings, for many years to come.”

Widebody Boeing 767 freighters have become the “preeminent midsize component of regional air-cargo networks over the last ten years, and ATSG is the world’s largest lessor of that aircraft type,” the Wilmington company said.

ATSG expects to end 2020 with 78 owned 767 freighter aircraft in operation, 71 of which will be leased to eleven external customers.

Amazon has invested more than $2 billion in Ohio since 2011.