As Amazon Prime Day launches for the third year in a row, the online retailer has its Amazon Air Cargo planes fueled and ready to support Prime Day fulfillment and shipping in the United States for the first time.
Fortune reported news that approximately 40 jets leased from Atlas Air (Amazon’s air cargo partner since last May) make up the fulfillment fleet, flying to at least 10 U.S. airports as of the end of 2016. The cargo air service complements shipping orders made via UPS and FedEx, but also enables Amazon to handle its delivery logistics in-house.
Prime Day deals are only available for Prime members, whose subscriptions include free two-day shipping nationwide. Similar to Alibaba’s Singles Day in China, Prime Day has proven a huge success for Amazon over the last two years, delivering up to 20 times more than its normal daily sales. In fact, last year’s Prime Day surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday the previous winter in generating the most sales for the company in a single day.
Some of the deals promised include half off the Amazon Echo; $30 off the Kindle Paperwhite; $40 off on Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition; up to 50 percent off on select video games, consoles and accessories; up to 40 percent off on select furniture, mattresses, rugs and more.
Amazon Prime Day officially kicked off for all Prime members at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET July 10, with more promos rolling out every five minutes for the following 24 hours. For serious shoppers, Prime members can use the Amazon App to watch and track upcoming deals up to 24 hours before they are live.
Not a Prime subscriber? You can sign up just by asking Alexa, and some offers will run through July 17.