Recognized By Air Cargo World For Spearheading Amazon’s Revolutionary Air Cargo Operation

Sarah Rhoads, Director of Amazon Air, has been named the 2018 Air Cargo Executive of the Year by Air Cargo World, for the integral part she played in the development of Amazon’s air cargo operation.

“2018 has certainly been a year of growth for the Amazon Air program,” Rhoads told Air Cargo World’s editor, Randy Woods, in an exclusive interview. “I’m certainly proud of all the work my team has done to get to this point.”

Air Cargo World annually recognizes the air cargo executive who has made the greatest contribution to the industry during that calendar year. The award has been presented annually since 2014. Last year, Peter Gerber, CEO of Lufthansa’s Cargo division, won the award. Sarah Rhoads is the first woman to win the Air Cargo Executive of the Year Award.

After a successful career as a pilot and flight instructor for the U.S. Navy’s carrier-based F/A-18 aircraft, Rhoads moved into operational roles at Amazon. After a number of years managing various aspects of fulfillment centers in the United States and the United Kingdom, Rhoads is now responsible for providing the leadership and vision for Amazon’s expanding air cargo network, which recently grew to 40 freighters operating out of 21 U.S.-based gateway destinations to support its customers fulfillment network, as of November.

In 2018, Amazon Air added eight 767F freighters to its fleet and seven new “gateway” destinations in Denver, CO; Hartford, CT; Minneapolis, MN; Portland, OR; Honolulu, HI; Miami, FL; and the latest addition, Riverside, CA, bringing the total to 21 gateways.

“The main goal, this year and every year, is to ensure that the carrier has the capacity necessary to fulfill Amazon’s customer promise,” Rhoads said. “We’ve been very methodical with our planning, so fortunately I wouldn’t say we’ve been particularly surprised by anything. We’ve been able to maintain stability in a year with still some fairly rapid growth.”

The award was presented to Rhoads based on input from Air Cargo World readers, as well as its editors.

(Source: Air Cargo World news release)

FMI: www.aircargoworld.com