Amazon deal doubles size of air cargo fleet （472words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco

Amazon has signed a new leasing deal for cargo jets, doubling the size of its fleet and underscoring its ambitions to grow its air transport network.

The news comes as Amazon has been investing heavily in its logistics network and taking more logistics operations in-house. The retailer has experienced rapid growth in sales and in units shipped — which rose 28 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, last quarter — and executives say they have had to take control over more logistics operations to keep up with growth.

Under the new deal, Amazon will lease 20 Boeing 767 cargo jets from Atlas Air Worldwide, an aviation company based in New York state, for seven years. Amazon will also have the option to purchase up to 30 per cent of Atlas Air Worldwide at a predetermined price of $37.50 per share, a slight discount to Wednesday's closing price.

Amazon has previously said that its cargo fleet will be used to support the growth of Prime membership in the US, which includes two-day shipping. Analysts said the planes would probably be used to transport goods between Amazon warehouses.

“I am a little surprised at the number of aircraft,” said David Vernon, analyst at Bernstein. “Going from zero to 20 was a lot, and now they've doubled that. It seems like they have this pressing need for expedited transport of inventory.”

Amazon's moves have raised questions about whether the company, which loses more than $1bn each quarter on shipping, may be trying to lessen its dependence on its traditional logistics partnerships such as FedEx and UPS.

“It doesn't appear to me that they are re-creating the UPS or the FedEx parcel network,” Mr Vernon said, pointing out that Amazon does not currently use UPS or FedEx for the type of rapid warehouse transport that the new fleet will provide. “It is hard to know because it is an entirely new development — we have never seen a supply chain like this built before.”

Amazon said during earnings last week that it would keep investing in logistics. “We continue to add logistics capacity really to supplement our other carriers,” said Brian Olsavksy, chief financial officer. “The main driver here is to be able to handle faster and faster delivery speeds.”

The deal with Atlas is similar in structure to Amazon's first leasing agreement, in which it leased 20 jets from Air Transportation Services Group and had the option to acquire up to 20 per cent of the company.

Also on Thursday, Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, sold $670m in Amazon shares, his biggest disposal ever by value. The sale of one million shares was part of a scheduled transaction — Mr Bezos also sold 1m shares last year and in the previous year. He remains Amazon's largest shareholder, owning 17 per cent of the company.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1．How many cargo jets did Amazon operate before?

A．40

B．10

C．20

D．30

答案

2．Where is the headquarters of Atlas Air Worldwide?

A．Washington State

B．New York state

C．New York

D．Hoosier

答案

3．Where is the new 20 Boeing 767 cargo jets used for?

A．Prime membership

B．warehouse management

C．international express service

D．cooperating with FedEx

答案

4．Which one of following is wrong for Amazon?

A．Amazon would keep investing in logistics.

B．Amazon has the option to acquire up to 20 per cent of Atlas.

C．Mr. Bezos remains Amazon's largest shareholder.

D．It is the second deal with Atlas for cargo jets.

答案