E-tailer Mercado Libre secures dedicated cargo capacity

Following in the footsteps of Amazon, Latin-American e-tailer Mercado Libre is securing dedicated cargo capacity from third party carriers in order to speed up deliveries to their customers. Previously, Mercado Libre solely relied on belly-cargo with scheduled carriers.

The company has founded logistic platform Meli Air, which will contract other carriers to carry out the operations. The first airline that has been contracted is Brazilian carrier Sideral Linhas Aéreas, which will operate four of their B737-400SFs for Meli Air in Brazil A first one, PR-SDM, has now been painted in a bright Mercado Livre-livery.

Meli Air's plan is to sign contracts for other Latin-American countries in the coming months, with Mexico expected to follow next.

Photo by Mercado Libre