1st Amazon ATR72F spotted

On 15 September, the first ATR72F for Amazon Air was spotted at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FL). The aircraft, ATR72-500F N919AZ (853) is wearing a slightly different livery compared to Amazon's jets.

N919AZ was previously in use with Aurigny Air Services as G-VZON and was retired on 10 January 2020. After storage at Toulouse-Francazal it was registered on 8 July 2021 by Amazon Air LLC as N919AZ and ferried to Coeur d'Alene (ID) where it was converted into freighter. The ATR72F will be operated by Silver Airways and was ferried to Silver's home base at Fort Lauderdale on 28 July for painting and final preparations.

So far, Amazon Air has registered three ATR72Fs, the other two being N929AZ (727) and N937AZ (736). Of these, N929AZ is also currently being readied at Fort Lauderdale, while N937AZ is undergoing conversion at Coeur d'Alene.

The three ATR72Fs are also the first freighters for Silver Airways, which announced it would enter the all cargo flying business in July. The original plan was to operate the ATR42F but this now seems to have changed to the larger variant. If the ATR72Fs will be operated out of Forth Worth-Alliance (TX) as announced back then is currently unknown.

Photo by Racso Smet.