What only happened? Amazon on Tuesday said it has purchased nearly a dozen used Boeing 767-300 aircraft to expand its air transportation network. Iv of the shipping are from WestJet and are currently being converted from passenger plans to cargo jets. Amazon expects these to enter its fleet later on this twelvemonth. The remaining seven jets, from Delta, should be fix to fly the friendly skies by 2022.

A spokesperson told Bloomberg that Amazon expects to have more than 85 planes in service by the terminate of adjacent year. The purchase marks the beginning fourth dimension Amazon has e'er bought an aircraft. All of the jets it has used up to this point have been leased.

"Having a mix of both leased and owned aircraft in our growing fleet allows us to better manage our operations, which in turn helps the states to keep footstep in coming together our customer promises," said Sarah Rhoads, vice president of Amazon Global Air and one-time Navy pilot.

Financial details of the purchase weren't shared although according to Rob Morris, a consultant at Ascend past Cirium, the Delta jets could be worth $thirteen million to $xiv million each.

Indeed, being able to eliminate the middleman – in this case, traditional delivery specialists like UPS, FedEx and the USPS – allows Amazon to maximize profits and better control how goods are shuffled from warehouses around the globe. Information technology besides enables Amazon to create more jobs.