A couple of things triggered me for this post and flight. Today, my teen kept tracking, on the phone, the stop-by-stop arrival, of one of his much-anticipated Amazon Prime packages at our front door. However, when the delivery was less than one stop away, I was delegated the duty of stepping out and meeting the Amazon truck...🙂...Indeed, just as I opened the front door, I saw the truck swing by and come to an abrupt stop in front of the driveway. The driver rushed out, handed me the package marked with the familiar blue Prime letters and that smiley curved arrow. I think he chose to opt out of taking a customary photo as proof of delivery, unless he snapped one, when I turned my back towards him, while heading for the door...🙂...Oh well...

And, last week, I happened to visit Madison, Wisconsin, 150 miles up north from Chicago. On my way on the highway, I passed by the city of Rockford, IL, and the Chicago Rockford International Airport (KRFD), which functions as a major hub and key logistic center for Amazon (in fact, I would not be surprised if the package that arrived today, was actually sorted in Amazon's Rockford center, before been shipped onward by truck to our front door). Anyway, around there on the outskirts of Rockford, I'd caught sight, in the sky, of a couple of Prime Air A330-300s climbing away. I could tell that they were (most likely) A330s (though I could have been mistaken), because I was aware that Prime Air's largest freighters, in its current fleet, are the A330-300P2Fs (Passenger-to-Freighter Converted A330-300s). Prime Air also has the (wide-body) 767-300Fs, which are generally smaller than the A330-300Fs, and the even smaller B737-800Fs. 

We are all familiar with Amazon Prime, for items we order on-line, as the packages miraculously show up, on our doorsteps, from across the country, with remarkable speed and efficiency. The packages, along with "Prime" written on them in blue color, also carry the distinctive A-Z smile (Amazon logo). See e.g., in my shot #4 below, one close-up underbelly shot of this A330, and observe how the smile (the curved arrow) spreads from letter "a" to letter "z"...🙂...signifying that the company sells everything from A-To-Z by service with a (friendly) smile...

Prime Air is an interesting entity in the aviation world. First of all, it's a "virtual" cargo airline, as opposed to e.g., UPS or FedEx. In economics, a "virtual" airline is one that has outsourced as many possible operational and business functions of a (normal) airline as it can but still maintains effective control of its core business (here, that of "freighting"). Until about 2021, Prime Air almost entirely had relied on "wet leasing" i.e., leasing ACMI = "aircraft + crew + maintenance + insurance" by outsourcing all these functions from others. Since then, it has actually acquired (i.e., owned) some aircraft, though still relying on others for CMI = "crew + maintenance + insurance". 

For example, all of its 10 A330-300P2F freighters (one example of which you see in my images below), are flown and maintained by Hawaiian Airlines (you may spot a tiny marking of it on the nose of the A330s). These A330 aircraft (leased from Altavair, which is the lessor here) are (P2F) converted by EFW of Germany, a joint venture between (France's) Airbus and (Singapore's) ST-Engineering (an aerospace company well-known for conversion contracts with both Boeing and Airbus). Now, how did Hawaiian end up securing this lucrative contract with Amazon's A330F fleet...? The answer lies in the fact that Hawaiian itself has extensive experience with the Airbus A330 a/c (it has 33 of the type in its own service), plus a solid track record of reliable and on-time passenger (and cargo) flights, proving capable of handling Amazon's Cargo for both mainland and Hawaii-bound routes.

So, here we go, as I command a short flight of one of Prime Air's (leased) A330-300Fs, as a Hawaiian Airlines Pilot would do...🙂...for the Prime Air A333s. Honolulu is indeed one of the destinations on Amazon's vast route network. Here, for this post, I fly within the Hawaiian Islands, from/to the largest two airports in all of Hawaii; namely Kahului Airport (PHOG) and (Honolulu) International Airport (PHNL) - see my cockpit ND Display and MSFS EFB Map. On my way, I deliberately crisscross over those spectacular volcanic mountain ranges (and the pristine oceanic channels) of the (en-route) Hawaiian Islands.

Thanks for viewing this collection of images of an A330-300P2F (RR) Airbus, flying in the colors of Prime Air, operated by Hawaiian Airlines, in the operator's homeland. The iniBuilds A330 was nice and a delight to fly, at least, from this (average) simmer's perspective...🙂...

Thanks for viewing...!

Great set of photos...and I'm always just a tad more interested in the "freight dogs".  🙂

I was reading an older article (2021) that EFW had orders for 100 A330 conversions...far fewer have been delivered up to 2025 than the 100 quoted. The A333F is still a somewhat "rare" sighting occurrence...I expect in the coming years, we'll be seeing many, many more as the airlines retire their original CEO's for replacement NEO's. (The original run of A330-300's is almost 800 airframes.)

It is expected that the A333F will eventually surpass the B763F as the "aircraft of choice" for medium haul freight (increased payload/better economics).

In the virtual world, I'm still maintaining hope that FSLabs will deliver a top tier A330 for MSFS...for your sake, a Marketplace version as well!  🙂 

ps: The Islands/Approach photos you've posted look fantastic!!!

Fine set !

cheers 😉

9 hours ago, rmeier said:

Great set of photos...and I'm always just a tad more interested in the "freight dogs".  🙂

I was reading an older article (2021) that EFW had orders for 100 A330 conversions...far fewer have been delivered up to 2025 than the 100 quoted. The A333F is still a somewhat "rare" sighting occurrence...I expect in the coming years, we'll be seeing many, many more as the airlines retire their original CEO's for replacement NEO's. (The original run of A330-300's is almost 800 airframes.)

It is expected that the A333F will eventually surpass the B763F as the "aircraft of choice" for medium haul freight (increased payload/better economics).

In the virtual world, I'm still maintaining hope that FSLabs will deliver a top tier A330 for MSFS...for your sake, a Marketplace version as well!  🙂 

ps: The Islands/Approach photos you've posted look fantastic!!!

Greatly appreciated the comments, rmeier...!

Yes, indeed, EFW is becoming dominant player in the conversion business of the A330-300s into freighters...along with Altavair acting as a highly effective conduit for catering to (and financing) the global demands for this freighter type. I didn't know EFW had a backlog of 100 units already.

Let us see how long, Prime Air's mixed mode (767F/333F) strategy holds true. Agree, the newer and larger A333F type will eventually replace the 767F...

An FSLabs A330 will be fantastic for us...though I understand FSLabs is not big on Xbox ...🙂...Oh well...one never knows the power of the market and money...🙂...

Thanks again...!

8 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Fine set !

cheers 😉

Thanks much for the comment, pmplayer...

Cheers...!