Air Transport Services Group has said during the quarterly earnings call that it had agreed to accelerate deliveries of leased B767-300F freighters to Amazon.com.

"At Amazon's request, we have changed that schedule to lease them six 767s this year and four more in 2020. In late June, Cargo Aircraft Management deployed the first of the six. The second one entered service in early July, and the third is due later this month. The three others will be in service by peak season," President and CEO Joe Hete said.

The contract signed in December 2018 originally foresaw deliveries of five freighters in 2019 and five more in 2020.

According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Cargo Aircraft Management currently leases twenty-six freighters to Amazon. ATSG's subsidiary ABX Air (GB, Wilmington, OH) operates seven B767-200(F)s on behalf of the e-commerce giant, while another subsidiary ATI - Air Transport International (8C, Wilmington, OH) operates seven B767-200(F)s and twelve -300(F)s.

The Amazon contract currently contributes around 20% of ATSG's revenues.

ATSG also said that going forward, it will focus on growing the Cargo Aircraft Management fleet of B767s rather than the fleet of another subsidiary, Omni Air International (OY, Tulsa International)

"In 2020, we expect to deploy at least ten more aircraft, four of which are under customer commitments to Amazon and one that we expect to lease to United Parcel Service next year," Hete said.

Hete added that ATSG together with its joint venture partner Precision Aircraft Solutions expects to receive a supplemental type certificate for the A321 passenger-to-freighter converted aircraft in mid-2020. Cargo Aircraft Management is already assessing "the market for A321 feedstock in anticipation of STC approval in production possibly beginning late next year".

Cargo Aircraft Management owns, in total, two B737-400(F)s, four B757-200(M), four B757-200(PF)s, thirty-seven B767-200(F)s, forty-five -300(F)s, and two B777-200(ER)s. Besides ATSG's subsidiaries, the lessor also leases freighters to Air Incheon, Amerijet International, Cargojet Airways, DHL International Aviation Middle East, Northern Air Cargo, Raya Airways, SkyTaxi (Poland), West Atlantic (United Kingdom), and West Atlantic Sweden.