Atlas Air is hoping to provide online retailer, Amazon with its first aircraft in the next quarter as it announced its first half profits fell to $21 million due to acquisitions and investments.
The aircraft outsourcer signed a deal with Amazon earlier this year to provide 20 Boeing 767-300s by the end of 2018 and says the quarterly and half year profits were down due to the expenses in starting up the service. Net income during the half was down from $57.6 million in 2015 to $21 million this year, while the second quarter fell to $20.5 million from $28.4 million in 2015. Atlas also acquired Southern Air in April this year, adding Boeing 777s and 737s to its services.
Atlas Air president and chief executive officer, William Flynn says: “We expect to place our first aircraft into service for Amazon soon in this quarter. We have secured all of the conversion slots and the vast majority of the feedstock aircraft required to support 20 B767-300s for Amazon by the end of 2018.”
“The acquisition of Southern Air creates more options for us in all of our market segments, and our relationship with Amazon includes an opportunity for additional business beyond our initial service for them. We continue to expect both Amazon and Southern Air to be meaningfully accretive to our longer-term earnings and cash flows.”
