Pilot Strike Could Disrupt Amazon's Holiday Deliveries
A pilot strike is threatening to ground flights carrying cargo for Amazon.com during the busy holiday season. About 250 pilots employed by ABX Air, a subsidiary of Air Transport Services Group, went on strike Tuesday morning to protest what they say are staffing shortages. Now Amazon and shipping company DHL Worldwide Express, which are both customers of ABX, could be negatively impacted by the strike. ABX currently operates 35 flights a day for Amazon.
Total Retail's Take: It's ironic that Amazon, which has in part built its business through a nationwide distribution network to ensure its orders get delivered to customers as quickly as possible, could face a logistics nightmare at its busiest time of the year. You can have the best online shopping experience possible — find the item you're looking for without having to search for it, have it be available for purchase when you want it, a streamlined checkout experience — but if you don't get the package when you're expecting it, all that precedes that missed delivery date is rendered meaningless. This is likely doubly true during the gift-giving holiday season. However, something tells me that 250 striking pilots isn't going to get in the way of Amazon ensuring that its packages get delivered — on time — to the millions of customers shopping with the online retailer this holiday season.
