Amazon air contractor aims to force striking pilots back to work

ABX Air, which flies packages for Amazon.com and DHL Worldwide Express, asked a federal judge to force striking pilots back to work and thwart a threat to disrupt deliveries during the holiday shopping season. About 250 pilots employed by ABX Air, a subsidiary of Air Transport Services, are striking to protest alleged staffing shortages at the cargo carrier. ABX Air operates 35 flights a day for Amazon and 45 daily flights for DHL, according to the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, which represents the pilots. ABX said in its complaint that 26 flights, loaded with 1.25m pounds of cargo, were grounded Tuesday. The retail industry is gearing up for its busiest period, with shoppers increasingly shunning brick-and-mortar stores and shopping from their phones and computers. Online spending in November and December will increase 11% this year to $91.6b, according to an October forecast from Adobe Systems. "While they go through this court process, planes are not flying," said Satish Jindel, president of SJ Consulting Group. "Obviously that is of concern to a company like DHL and Amazon." But he said Amazon can shift some volume to UPS and FedEx and can also find some smaller contract parcel shippers to move packages if needed. The pilots are picketing outside ABX Air's headquarters in Wilmington, Ohio, and DHL's North American hub at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.<br/>