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Jeff Bezos now has an Amazon airline, too

Amazon is leasing a bunch of Boeing 767s and flying them as "Prime Air," so it can deliver things to people on its own.
Photo Amazon.com

On Thursday, Amazon pulled back the curtain at Lake Washington to reveal the first in a new fleet of Amazon cargo airplanes, painted, polished and ready to deliver products across the globe.

It's a way to bypass relying on services like Fedex and UPS in a pinch when delivering orders for its Prime customers. Amazon has leased some Boeing 767 widebody jet freighters, and the first one unveiled Thursday in "Prime Air" colors with an Amazon arrow logo on the tail will be operated by Atlas Air, a large US airline that mostly flies cargo planes.

It's all part of a broader project by Amazon founder and ceo Jeff Bezos to build out Amazon's ability to deliver stuff on its own, also leasing trucks, cargo ships, and, some glorious day, even unmanned drones.

Amazon Prime, founded in 1995 as a membership program guaranteeing superquick delivery, now sports 46 million customers, Recode reported. That's probably Amazon's most important channel of revenue.

Amazon, which has a market cap of around $332 billion, reportedly has plans to eventually lease at least 40 Boeing aircraft.