Amazon buys Boeing jets from Delta, WestJet as aircraft prices drop

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The 767-300 has a great track record as a freighter. You can buy them pennies on the dollar right now. Fuel economy matters little when they're run only a few hours/day. Matters a lot in passenger service when they're flying 12-14/day.

Bezos doesn't have to be smart - he has smart guys working for him, including several former Navy Officers I know.
 
767 is the workhorse of nearly every major cargo company in the US. They're cheap, generous cargo capacity and have decent range. Probably the most bang for the buck in midsize cargo airliner. Fuel is still cheap and probably will be for some time, so the fuel economy penalty vs newer, more efficient planes isn't as much of a factor. The article mentioned the planes are about 20 years old, so pretty well used up. I'm guessing Amazon is getting a bargain and these will pay for themselves quickly.
 
Freight is generally much more lucrative per pound vs “live hazardous cargo” , hence why you see the old planes with higher fuel costs being operated in the air freight fleets. Combine that with fewer airframe cycles, no need to refurb interiors and you have a decent business justification for keeping the guzzlers going.

Try calculating the rate to ship yourself via FedEx or UPS and you’ll see why.
 
767... even a -300 meh... I'm a Boeing guy, but don't get it. Maybe makes sense for medium haul domestic cargo only flying and they probably buying them 20 cents on the dollar.

I'm a little surprised DL did not dump all their 76s in one felt swoop. All the engineering and training costs that come with having even a single a/c type would go away.

I know their expensive as heck, but would bet they must have looked at 78s

Should Atlantic and South America travel rebound to "normal" they would not have adequate widebody fleet to cover and they don't have much left on the order books (1 more A330 left to deliver and that is it) . Remember they just retired the smaller 777 fleet (18 frames) that was younger and outside of 2 or 3 777-200LR routes their newer A350 and A330 could handle pretty much all of the 777-200ER routes more efficiently.

The 767 fleet (767-300ER and 767-400ER) is showing as 72 frames with 31 of those in storage, thinking some of those 31 are going to Amazon. During normal times in peak trans-Atlantic summer DL would typically have 8 to 10 of those rotating in/out of maintenance or refurbishment with the rest plying the 8-12 hour international runs (Europe and South America), then winter slowdown to Europe they throw the slack widebody aircraft to sun and sand routes (Florida, Arizona, Mexico, etc.) to get people down south from the snow and cold. Sun and sand routes would be fine without widebodies as they don't need the range, majority of trans-Atlantic outside of NYC/BOS need the range of the widebodies.

Long story short the 767 replacement is going to take some time, they pretty much just finished an extensive years long refurbishment on them that makes them look pretty much new (same with the 757, A319, A320 fleet) which are all the oldest birds in the fleet.
 
767 is a solid airplane and the economics are different for cargo aircraft, as @wpod said. Older aircraft find new life as freighters. Besides that, Delta has invested quite a bit in updating their 767 fleet, so they are mostly in very good shape. Also, there are many outfits that can work on them and fix them up, so you probably save on the cargo conversion. Parts are likely cheaper, too.
 
767 is a solid airplane and the economics are different for cargo aircraft, as @wpod said. Older aircraft find new life as freighters. Besides that, Delta has invested quite a bit in updating their 767 fleet, so they are mostly in very good shape. Also, there are many outfits that can work on them and fix them up, so you probably save on the cargo conversion. Parts are likely cheaper, too.
Don't forget Delta TechOps is up there with Lufthansa Technik as far as their ability to keep a reliable fleet moving along quite nicely and keep them in good condition until they fly to the desert.
 
Bezos wants to own the world. From an enterprise business standpoint, I find Amazon highly interesting.
For the past 30, maybe 40 years, business strategy was to focus on core strengths and outsource everything else.
Jeff Bezos flipped outsource strategy on its head.

He has done pretty well by setting up an online book store...

Amazon never made any money on retail ops until they came up with Prime. Prime changed everything for their retail ops.

All their profits came from AWS for a number of years. People used to joke they were a datacenter company with a storefront side gig. Obviously, that's changed now.
 
Should Atlantic and South America travel rebound to "normal" they would not have adequate widebody fleet to cover and they don't have much left on the order books (1 more A330 left to deliver and that is it) . Remember they just retired the smaller 777 fleet (18 frames) that was younger and outside of 2 or 3 777-200LR routes their newer A350 and A330 could handle pretty much all of the 777-200ER routes more efficiently.

The 767 fleet (767-300ER and 767-400ER) is showing as 72 frames with 31 of those in storage, thinking some of those 31 are going to Amazon. During normal times in peak trans-Atlantic summer DL would typically have 8 to 10 of those rotating in/out of maintenance or refurbishment with the rest plying the 8-12 hour international runs (Europe and South America), then winter slowdown to Europe they throw the slack widebody aircraft to sun and sand routes (Florida, Arizona, Mexico, etc.) to get people down south from the snow and cold. Sun and sand routes would be fine without widebodies as they don't need the range, majority of trans-Atlantic outside of NYC/BOS need the range of the widebodies.

Long story short the 767 replacement is going to take some time, they pretty much just finished an extensive years long refurbishment on them that makes them look pretty much new (same with the 757, A319, A320 fleet) which are all the oldest birds in the fleet.

B767 replacements - ?
A321XLR?
A330-Neo
B787-8?
More A350-9 and just deal with the extra size/weight as the cost of doing business?

The A350-8 will never get built, the economics wouldn't be good.

Did Delta ever cancel the legacy B787-8 orders that were legacy NWA?
 
Amazon needs to invest in driver Training.
You can practically look out my office window and see Amazon driver training taking place. They've set up a cone obstacle course in the torn down mall parking lot and there are numerous trucks traversing it as I drive by on my nightly commute.
 
B767 replacements - ?
A321XLR?
A330-Neo
B787-8?
More A350-9 and just deal with the extra size/weight as the cost of doing business?

The A350-8 will never get built, the economics wouldn't be good.

Did Delta ever cancel the legacy B787-8 orders that were legacy NWA?
I'm thinking the A330 (all variants) and A359 will be the entirety of the widebody fleet when they retire the 767's, I'm guessing 5 years give or take before the 767 bows out. A321XLR wouldn't be able to do a large % of the ATL, MSP, DTW-Europe routes, would probably be a good trans Atlantic 757 replacement though and I could see them go that route.

They canceled the 787 order some years back after the merger, IIRC they avoided penalties with the 737-900ER order (130 frames).
 
You can practically look out my office window and see Amazon driver training taking place. They've set up a cone obstacle course in the torn down mall parking lot and there are numerous trucks traversing it as I drive by on my nightly commute.
They used cones in drivers Ed as well ... I have witnessed my fair share of their negligence.
 
The 767-300 has a great track record as a freighter. You can buy them pennies on the dollar right now. Fuel economy matters little when they're run only a few hours/day. Matters a lot in passenger service when they're flying 12-14/day.

Bezos doesn't have to be smart - he has smart guys working for him, including several former Navy Officers I know.
What’s all involved when converting a passenger plan to a cargo plane? Surely they leave a few seats behind?
 
767 is a solid airplane and the economics are different for cargo aircraft, as @wpod said. Older aircraft find new life as freighters. Besides that, Delta has invested quite a bit in updating their 767 fleet, so they are mostly in very good shape. Also, there are many outfits that can work on them and fix them up, so you probably save on the cargo conversion. Parts are likely cheaper, too.
I recall that most DC10/MD-11 and MD-80 jets wound up as UPS and FedEx freighters.
 
I recall that most DC10/MD-11 and MD-80 jets wound up as UPS and FedEx freighters.
DC-10 and MD-11 yes as a matter of fact they are still flying cargo around. FedEx is still running DC-10's and MD-11's and UPS still running MD-11's. DC-10 last saw passenger service (in US) back in early 2000's, most carriers quickly retired them right after 9/11.

MD-80 - I don't believe there as ever a cargo conversion.
 
DC-10 and MD-11 yes as a matter of fact they are still flying cargo around. FedEx is still running DC-10's and MD-11's and UPS still running MD-11's. DC-10 last saw passenger service (in US) back in early 2000's, most carriers quickly retired them right after 9/11.

MD-80 - I don't believe there as ever a cargo conversion.
A company in Florida started converting them to freighters 10 years ago.
 
I wonder what is the cost to turn a passenger 767 into a 767F ?
 
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