After it was revealed last week that Amazon has expanded testing of its own logistics network in three cities in Europe, more details have been uncovered by Air Cargo World’s sister publication Cargo Facts about the specific locations and route information, and how it fits with Amazon’s existing distribution network on the continent.
Amazon has been working with Germany-based forwarder and logistics services provider DB Schenker, using a wet-leased 737 freighter, operated by charter carrier ASL France, to connect cities in Poland, Germany, and the U.K., with plans to expand the trial to include more freighters, as well as more destinations in Italy and Spain.
Cargo Facts has found that the 737-300F is being operated by ASL on a Monday-Saturday, 6x weekly schedule between Wroclaw, Poland (WRO); Doncaster, U.K. (DSA); and Kassel, Germany (KSF). All three of these cities are located near Amazon’s fulfillment centers: WRO is 12 minutes from two Wroclaw fulfillment centers, DSA is 18 minutes from two Doncaster centers, and KSF is a little over an hour away from Amazon’s two centers in Bad Hersfeld, Germany.
According to Amazon, the second Doncaster fulfillment center opened – rather conveniently – in October 2015, bring the total capacity for that location to 660,000 square feet. The two centers in Bad Hersfeld are considered some of the most important Amazon hubs in Germany, accounting for 1.7 million square feet, the company said. In Wroclaw, the 2.2 million-square-foot facilities are as large as some of the fulfillment centers found in the U.S.
Regarding possible future expansion, the largest Amazon fulfillment center in Spain is located in Madrid, nearly adjacent to Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD). The center is slated to be expanded to 807,000 square feet in the first quarter of the coming year. Could this be just a coincidence? Maybe not.
Parma, Italy, is another possible contender. Amazon currently has only one 650,000-square-foot fulfillment center at Piacenza, Italy, near Milan, which is only about an hour’s drive from the relatively uncongested Parma International Airport (PMF). Interestingly, PMF also happens to be partly owned by a Chinese logistics/e-commerce company.
As Cargo Facts reported earlier this month, Amazon has also been conducting trial air operations in the United States and is believed to have begun the process of setting up an own-controlled US domestic air network based on a fleet of twenty 767 freighters. Whether it will make a similar move in Europe remains to be seen.