It's been a little over a year since Amazon opened its delivery station near Honolulu Harbor, hiring some 500 people to staff it.
Amazon said in that time, it has delivered more than 3.5 million packages, with the help of some 600 delivery service partners.
But most of those packages have taken at least two days to get here. Not anymore. Now Amazon says it can offer next-day delivery to addresses on Oʻahu. That’s because the company has added an additional plane that departs the continental U.S. at a later time.
That later departure time is key because it allows Amazon to extend the cutoff window for orders and still meet its next-day promise.
Stephanie Kalili is Amazon's site leader at the Honolulu facility. She said the packages on those flights are prioritized both at the origin and when the planes arrive here. That ensures those packages are processed and delivered as quickly as possible.
There are three Amazon flights that serve Oʻahu each day on average.
Kalili said the Honolulu operation has exceeded expectations for the first year of service, and expanding to next-day delivery has happened faster than anticipated.
The Honolulu facility isn’t the only property Amazon owns in Hawaiʻi. The company bought 49 acres of industrial land in Kapolei three years ago, but so far has been mum on its plans.
