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FedEx Express (airline)
Encyclopedia
FedEx Express is a cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee
, United States. It is the world's largest airline in terms of freight tons flown and the world's fourth largest in terms of fleet size. It is a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, delivering packages and freight to more than 375 destinations in nearly every country each day.
Its headquarters are in Memphis with its global "SuperHub" located at Memphis International Airport
. In the United States, FedEx Express has national hubs at Indianapolis International Airport
, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
and Fort Worth Alliance Airport
. Regional hubs are located at Oakland International Airport
, Newark Liberty International Airport
and Miami International Airport
. International regional hubs are located at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
, Toronto Pearson International Airport
and Cologne Bonn Airport
. The hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport
is awaiting opening due to a downturn in package volume.
while he was studying at Yale University. For a class there, he submitted a paper which argued that in modern technological society time meant money more than ever before and with the advent of miniaturized electronic circuitry, very small components had become extremely valuable. He argued that the consumer society was becoming increasingly hungry for mass-produced electronic items, but the decentralizing effect induced by these very devices gave manufacturers tremendous logistic problems in delivering the items. Smith felt that the necessary delivery speed could only be achieved by using air transport. But, he believed that the US air cargo system was so inflexible and bound by regulations at that time that it was completely incapable of making sufficiently fast deliveries. Plus, the US air cargo industry was highly unsuited to the role. Its system depended on cooperation between companies, as interlining was often necessary to get a consignment from point A to point B, and the industry relied heavily on cargo forwarders to fill hold space and perform doorstep deliveries.
In his paper, Smith proposed a new concept - have one carrier be responsible for a piece of cargo from local pick-up right through to ultimate delivery, operating its own aircraft, depots, posting stations and delivery vans. To ensure accurate sorting and dispatching of every item of freight, the carrier would fly it from all of its pickup stations to a central clearinghouse, from where the entire operation would be controlled. He submitted the paper to the professor teaching the course, who gave the paper the grade of "C". Despite the professor's opinion, Smith held on to the idea.
He founded the Federal Express Corporation in 1971. It was originally founded in Little Rock, Arkansas
in 1971, as Smith was operating Little Rock Airmotive there. After a lack of support from the Little Rock National Airport
, Smith moved the company to Memphis, Tennessee and the Memphis International Airport
in 1973.
The company started overnight operations on April 17, 1973 with fourteen Dassault Falcon 20
s that connected twenty-five cities in the United States. That night, 18 packages were carried. Services included both overnight and two-day package and envelope delivery services, as well as Courier Pak. Federal Express began to market itself as "the freight service company with 550-mile-per-hour delivery trucks". However, the company began to experience financial difficulties losing up to a million USD a month. While waiting for a flight home to Memphis from Chicago after being turned down for capital by General Dynamics
, Smith impulsively hopped a flight to Las Vegas, where he won $27,000 playing blackjack. The winnings enabled the cash-strapped company to meet payroll the following Monday. "The $27,000 wasn’t decisive, but it was an omen that things would get better," Smith says. In the end, he raised somewhere between $50 and $70 million, from twenty of the USA's
leading risk venture speculators, including such companies as the First National City Bank of New York and the Bank of America in California. At the time, Federal Express was the most highly financed new company in US history, in terms of venture capital.
Federal Express installed its first drop box in 1975 which allowed customers to drop off packages without going to a company local branch. In 1976, the company became profitable with an average volume of 19,000 parcels per day.
(Public Law 95-163) removed restrictions on the routes operated by all-cargo airlines, and enabled Federal Express to purchase its first large aircraft: seven Boeing 727-100s
. In 1978, the company went public and was listed on The New York Stock Exchange. The following year it became the first shipping company to use a computer to manage packages when it launched "COSMOS" (Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System), a centralized computer system to manage people, packages, vehicles and weather scenarios in real time. In 1980 the company implemented "DADS" (Digitally Assisted Dispatch System) to coordinate on-call pickups for customers; this system allows customers to schedule pickups for the same day.
In 1980, Federal Express began service to a further 90 cities in the United States. The following year the company introduced its overnight letter to compete with the US Postal Service's Express Mail, and allowed document shipping for the first time. Later in 1981 it started international operations with service to Canada, and officially opened its "SuperHub" at the Memphis International Airport
.
Federal Express' sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 1983. In the same year the company introduced ZapMail
, a fax
service that guaranteed the delivery of up to five pages in less than two hours for $35. ZapMail would later become a huge failure for the company, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars.
In 1986, the company introduced the "SuperTracker", a hand-held bar code scanner which brought parcel tracking to the shipping industry for the first time. Federal Express continued its rapid expansion in the late 1980s, and opened its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport
in 1986 and at Indianapolis International Airport
and Oakland International Airport
in 1988. In 1989, the company acquired Flying Tiger Line
to expand its international service, and subsequently opened a hub at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
to accommodate this new, expanded service. As the volume of international shipments increased, Federal Express created Clear Electronic Customs Clearance System to expedite regulatory clearance while cargo is en route.
in the Philippines
. In 1997 FedEx opened its hub at Fort Worth Alliance Airport
and in 1999 opened a European hub at Charles de Gaulle International Airport
in France. In 2000, the company officially dropped the "Federal Express" name and became "FedEx Express" to distinguish its express shipping service from others offered by its parent company FedEx Corporation.
In 2001, FedEx Express signed a 7-year contract to transport Express Mail and Priority Mail for the United States Postal Service
. This contract allowed FedEx to place drop boxes at every USPS post office. In 2007, the contract was extended until September 2013. USPS continues to be the largest customer of FedEx Express.
In December 2006, FedEx Express acquired the British courier company ANC Holdings Limited for £120 million. The acquisition added 35 sort facilities to the FedEx network and the company introduced Newark, Memphis, and Indianapolis routes directly to UK airports instead of stopping at FedEx's European hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport. In September 2007, ANC was rebranded as FedEx UK. FedEx Express also acquired Flying-Cargo Hungary Kft to expand service in Eastern Europe.
The late-2000s recession hit parent company FedEx Corporation and its express division hard. Many companies looking for ways to save money stopped shipping or moved to cheaper alternatives, such as surface shipping. FedEx Corporation announced large network capacity reductions at FedEx Express, including retiring some of its oldest and least efficient aircraft such as the McDonnell Douglas DC-10
and the Airbus A310
. FedEx also announced layoffs and work hour reductions at some of its hubs.
In December 2008, FedEx postponed delivery of the new Boeing 777 Freighter, four will be delivered in 2010 as previously agreed, but in 2011, FedEx will only take delivery of four, rather than the 10 originally planned. The remaining aircraft will be delivered in 2012 and 2013.
FedEx Express closed a hub for the first time in its history, when operations at its Asian-Pacific hub at Subic Bay International Airport
in the Philippines
ceased on February 6, 2009. The operations were transferred to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
in southern China.
FedEx Express had planned to open the new Chinese hub in December 2008 but in November 2008, the company delayed the opening until early 2009 citing the need to fully test the new hub.
On June 2, 2009, FedEx opened the new hub building at Piedmont Triad International Airport
in Greensboro, North Carolina
. FedEx announced in December 2008, that it still intended to open the building on time, despite the bad economy. The hub's operations would be scaled back from 1,500 employees to only 160, the size of the previous operations at the much smaller sorting facility. FedEx gave no time line as to when the hub will be operating at expected hub levels.
The hub had been delayed many years since FedEx first picked the airport to be its Mid-Atlantic
U.S. hub back in 1998. FedEx had to fight many complaints from nearby homeowners about the anticipated noise generated by its aircraft, because most of its flights take place at night. A third runway was built to accommodate the hub operation and the extra aircraft.
On October 27, 2010, FedEx opened its Central and Eastern European hub at Cologne Bonn Airport
. The hub features a fully automated sorting system that can process up to 18,000 packages per hour. The roof of the hub features FedEx's largest solar power installation, producing 800,000 kilowatt hours per year.
FedEx Express operates the world's largest cargo airfleet with 688 aircraft, and is the largest operator of the Airbus A300
, Airbus A310
, ATR 42
, Boeing 727, Cessna 208
, McDonnell Douglas DC-10/MD-10
, and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11
. The company took delivery of the last Boeing 727 built in September 1984 and the last A300/A310 built in July 2007. To be able to respond to changing freight demand quickly, FedEx Express tends to keep a number of empty planes in the air.
In 2007, FedEx revealed plans to acquire 90 Boeing 757-200s. Because production ended in 2005, FedEx was left with no choice but to acquire secondhand aircraft from other airlines at a cost of US$2.6 billion to replace its aging Boeing 727 fleet. The 757's debut for revenue service was on May 28, 2008.
FedEx Express was to have been the launch airline for the Airbus A380
freighter, having ordered ten for delivery between 2008 and 2011 with options on ten more. The company had planned to introduce the first aircraft into service in August 2008 for use on routes between hubs in the United States and Asia. Faced with A380 delays of more than two years, FedEx canceled these orders and replaced them with an order for 15 Boeing 777Fs
with an option for 15 more, to be delivered from 2009 through 2011. FedEx has said that Airbus
will allow it to transfer its nonrefundable deposits to purchases of future aircraft, and has stated it may consider the A380F when the A380 program is less affected by construction delays. In December 2008, FedEx postponed delivery of some of the 777s: four were be delivered in 2010 as previously agreed, and four more in 2011, rather than the 10 originally planned. Five more will arrive in 2012, and two in 2013. In January 2009, FedEx exercised its options to buy 15 more 777 freighters and acquired options for a further 15.
With one of the world's largest air fleets, FedEx Express is the largest member of the United States Civil Reserve Air Fleet
in terms of aircraft pledged.
The first Dassault Falcon 20C delivered to FedEx (N8FE) is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum
at the Smithsonian Institution
.
FedEx Feeder is the branding applied to all FedEx Express propeller
-driven aircraft which feed packages to and from airports served by larger jet aircraft.
In the United States and Canada, FedEx Express operates FedEx Feeder on a damp lease program where the contractor will lease the aircraft from FedEx fleet and provide a crew to operate the aircraft solely for FedEx. All of the feeder aircraft operated in the United States and Canada are owned by FedEx and because of this all of the aircraft are in the FedEx Feeder livery. Just like regional airlines, the contractor will operate the aircraft with their own flight number and call sign.
Outside the United States, the contractor will supply their own aircraft, which may or may not be in the FedEx Feeder livery. Depending on the arrangement with FedEx, the contractor may be able to carry cargo for other companies with the FedEx cargo.
List of contract carriers:
electric/diesel trucks into its fleet. At the time the company had hoped to replace its entire 30,000 W700 delivery truck fleet with the hybrid, but in June 2009 only 170 were on the road. Ninety-three of these operate in the United States in New York, Tampa
, Sacramento
and Washington, D.C.; the rest operate in Tokyo, Toronto, and Turin
. FedEx blamed the low number on a lack of investment from other major companies in hybrid technology. It had hoped that other companies would order hybrid trucks, and that tax credits would be issued by the United States government to reduce the cost.
FedEx claimed that the hybrid truck in the 2003 test decreases soot by 96 percent and emissions by 65 percent. It also claimed that the truck gets more than 50% better gas mileage while still having the same cargo capacity as a conventional truck.
In 2009, FedEx Express partnered with Iveco
and started a new test program of hybrid
electric/diesel vans. The test program will consist of 10 hybrid vans deployed in Milan
and Turin
, Italy. FedEx claims the new vans will have a 26.5% reduction in fuel consumption and a decrease in carbon dioxide
emissions of 7.5 tons when compared to FedEx's standard vehicle. The trial will continue until May 2010 and after the program's conclusion, FedEx will evaluate if the vans should be deployed on a larger scale.
In July 2009, FedEx Express partnered with Freightliner
and Eaton Corporation
to convert 92 delivery trucks into hybrids. The conversions boosted FedEx's fleet of hybrid-electric vehicle
s by more than 50 percent to 264. The trucks were placed into service in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
In November 2009, FedEx Express purchased 51 gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles from Azure Dynamics. The new trucks will be put into service in The Bronx
, New York City. The Bronx will be FedEx's first all hybrid station. The addition will bring FedEx Express’ fleet of hybrid electric and electric vehicles to 325.
FedEx is currently in the process of phasing out Boeing 727s for its fleet in favor of newer Boeing 757
s, the airline says the 757s are 47 percent more fuel-efficient. FedEx will soon switch from MD-11
s to Boeing 777
s for its long-range, international routes, freeing up the MD-11 fleet to fly shorter routes currently flown by the DC-10.
In 2003 FedEx Express partnered with the Department of Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman
to develop and flight test an anti-missile system, the Northrop Grumman Guardian
. It is intended that this system could be deployed on commercial airliners to protect them from terrorist attacks such as the 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident. FedEx supplied a MD-11 and a leased 747 for the flight test phase.
FedEx Express became the first air carrier to deploy the Guardian on a commercial flight in September, 2006, when they equipped a MD-10 freighter with the pod. The company currently has nine aircraft equipped with the system for further testing and evaluation. Because of the program's success, the US Congress directed DHS to extend it to passenger-carrying aircraft.
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, United States. It is the world's largest airline in terms of freight tons flown and the world's fourth largest in terms of fleet size. It is a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, delivering packages and freight to more than 375 destinations in nearly every country each day.
Its headquarters are in Memphis with its global "SuperHub" located at Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
. In the United States, FedEx Express has national hubs at Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport is a public airport located seven miles southwest of the central business district of Indianapolis, a city in Marion County, Indiana, United States. It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority...
, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
-Top destinations:-Scheduled cargo airlines:-Top destinations:-Scheduled cargo airlines:-Top destinations:-Scheduled cargo airlines:-Inter-terminal:...
and Fort Worth Alliance Airport
Fort Worth Alliance Airport
Fort Worth Alliance Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located north of the central business district of Fort Worth, city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States....
. Regional hubs are located at Oakland International Airport
Oakland International Airport
Oakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States...
, Newark Liberty International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport , first named Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport within the city limits of both Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States...
and Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...
. International regional hubs are located at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the main airport of Guangzhou, the capital of the province of Guangdong, People's Republic of China. Both airport codes were inherited from the previous Guangzhou airport, and the IATA code reflects Guangzhou's former romanization Canton...
, Toronto Pearson International Airport
Toronto Pearson International Airport
Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international airport serving Toronto, Ontario, Canada; its metropolitan area; and the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration that is home to 8.1 million people – approximately 25% of Canada's population...
and Cologne Bonn Airport
Cologne Bonn Airport
Cologne/Bonn Airport is an international airport located in the district of Porz in the city of Cologne, Germany, and is surrounded by the Wahner Heide nature reserve. The airport is centrally located in the Cologne/Bonn Region southeast of Cologne city centre and northeast of Bonn...
. The hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport
Piedmont Triad International Airport
Piedmont Triad International Airport is an airport just west of Greensboro, serving Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem as well as the entire Piedmont Triad Region in North Carolina. The airport has 3 runways; the third opened January 27, 2010 for traffic. The airport is located just off...
is awaiting opening due to a downturn in package volume.
Early history
The concept for what became Federal Express came to Fred SmithFrederick W. Smith
Fred Sidney Smith III , or Fred Smith, is the founder, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx, originally known as Federal Express, the first overnight express delivery company in the world, and the largest in the United States...
while he was studying at Yale University. For a class there, he submitted a paper which argued that in modern technological society time meant money more than ever before and with the advent of miniaturized electronic circuitry, very small components had become extremely valuable. He argued that the consumer society was becoming increasingly hungry for mass-produced electronic items, but the decentralizing effect induced by these very devices gave manufacturers tremendous logistic problems in delivering the items. Smith felt that the necessary delivery speed could only be achieved by using air transport. But, he believed that the US air cargo system was so inflexible and bound by regulations at that time that it was completely incapable of making sufficiently fast deliveries. Plus, the US air cargo industry was highly unsuited to the role. Its system depended on cooperation between companies, as interlining was often necessary to get a consignment from point A to point B, and the industry relied heavily on cargo forwarders to fill hold space and perform doorstep deliveries.
In his paper, Smith proposed a new concept - have one carrier be responsible for a piece of cargo from local pick-up right through to ultimate delivery, operating its own aircraft, depots, posting stations and delivery vans. To ensure accurate sorting and dispatching of every item of freight, the carrier would fly it from all of its pickup stations to a central clearinghouse, from where the entire operation would be controlled. He submitted the paper to the professor teaching the course, who gave the paper the grade of "C". Despite the professor's opinion, Smith held on to the idea.
He founded the Federal Express Corporation in 1971. It was originally founded in Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
in 1971, as Smith was operating Little Rock Airmotive there. After a lack of support from the Little Rock National Airport
Little Rock National Airport
Little Rock National Airport , officially Little Rock National Airport/Adams Field, is located 2 miles east of the central business district of Little Rock, a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. It is Arkansas' largest commercial service airport, serving more than 2.1 million...
, Smith moved the company to Memphis, Tennessee and the Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
in 1973.
Dassault Falcon 20
The Dassault Falcon 20 is a French business jet and was the first of a family of business jets built by Dassault Aviation.-Design and development:...
s that connected twenty-five cities in the United States. That night, 18 packages were carried. Services included both overnight and two-day package and envelope delivery services, as well as Courier Pak. Federal Express began to market itself as "the freight service company with 550-mile-per-hour delivery trucks". However, the company began to experience financial difficulties losing up to a million USD a month. While waiting for a flight home to Memphis from Chicago after being turned down for capital by General Dynamics
General Dynamics
General Dynamics Corporation is a U.S. defense conglomerate formed by mergers and divestitures, and as of 2008 it is the fifth largest defense contractor in the world. Its headquarters are in West Falls Church , unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, in the Falls Church area.The company has...
, Smith impulsively hopped a flight to Las Vegas, where he won $27,000 playing blackjack. The winnings enabled the cash-strapped company to meet payroll the following Monday. "The $27,000 wasn’t decisive, but it was an omen that things would get better," Smith says. In the end, he raised somewhere between $50 and $70 million, from twenty of the USA's
leading risk venture speculators, including such companies as the First National City Bank of New York and the Bank of America in California. At the time, Federal Express was the most highly financed new company in US history, in terms of venture capital.
Federal Express installed its first drop box in 1975 which allowed customers to drop off packages without going to a company local branch. In 1976, the company became profitable with an average volume of 19,000 parcels per day.
Rapid growth
The 1977 Airline Deregulation ActAirline Deregulation Act
The Airline Deregulation Act is a United States federal law signed into law on October 24, 1978. The main purpose of the act was to remove government control over fares, routes and market entry from commercial aviation...
(Public Law 95-163) removed restrictions on the routes operated by all-cargo airlines, and enabled Federal Express to purchase its first large aircraft: seven Boeing 727-100s
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...
. In 1978, the company went public and was listed on The New York Stock Exchange. The following year it became the first shipping company to use a computer to manage packages when it launched "COSMOS" (Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System), a centralized computer system to manage people, packages, vehicles and weather scenarios in real time. In 1980 the company implemented "DADS" (Digitally Assisted Dispatch System) to coordinate on-call pickups for customers; this system allows customers to schedule pickups for the same day.
In 1980, Federal Express began service to a further 90 cities in the United States. The following year the company introduced its overnight letter to compete with the US Postal Service's Express Mail, and allowed document shipping for the first time. Later in 1981 it started international operations with service to Canada, and officially opened its "SuperHub" at the Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport
Memphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
.
Federal Express' sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 1983. In the same year the company introduced ZapMail
Zapmail
Zapmail was a service, launched in 1984 by Federal Express whereby fax transmission was offered to customers as a means to expedite delivery of documents. This was before the widespread availability and use of fax services in homes and businesses...
, a fax
Fax
Fax , sometimes called telecopying, is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material , normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device...
service that guaranteed the delivery of up to five pages in less than two hours for $35. ZapMail would later become a huge failure for the company, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars.
In 1986, the company introduced the "SuperTracker", a hand-held bar code scanner which brought parcel tracking to the shipping industry for the first time. Federal Express continued its rapid expansion in the late 1980s, and opened its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport
Newark Liberty International Airport , first named Newark Metropolitan Airport and later Newark International Airport, is an international airport within the city limits of both Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States...
in 1986 and at Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport
Indianapolis International Airport is a public airport located seven miles southwest of the central business district of Indianapolis, a city in Marion County, Indiana, United States. It is owned and operated by the Indianapolis Airport Authority...
and Oakland International Airport
Oakland International Airport
Oakland International Airport , also known as Metropolitan Oakland International Airport, is a public airport located south of the central business district of Oakland, a city in Alameda County, California, United States...
in 1988. In 1989, the company acquired Flying Tiger Line
Flying Tiger Line
Flying Tiger Line, also known as Flying Tigers, was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States and a major military charter operator during the Cold War era for both cargo and personnel .- History :...
to expand its international service, and subsequently opened a hub at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
-Top destinations:-Scheduled cargo airlines:-Top destinations:-Scheduled cargo airlines:-Top destinations:-Scheduled cargo airlines:-Inter-terminal:...
to accommodate this new, expanded service. As the volume of international shipments increased, Federal Express created Clear Electronic Customs Clearance System to expedite regulatory clearance while cargo is en route.
FedEx era
In 1994, Federal Express adopted the "FedEx" name, formalizing the abbreviation that until then was unofficial. Also that year, FedEx launched Fedex.com as the first transportation web site to offer online package tracking, which allowed customers to conduct business via the internet. In 1995, the company acquired air routes from Evergreen International to start services to China, and opened an Asia and Pacific hub in Subic Bay International AirportSubic Bay International Airport
-Cargo airlines:As of October 2010, there are no cargo airlines operating in Subic Bay International Airport.FedEx Express closed its hub at Subic Bay on February 6, 2009, this was the first hub to be closed in FedEx's history...
in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1997 FedEx opened its hub at Fort Worth Alliance Airport
Fort Worth Alliance Airport
Fort Worth Alliance Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located north of the central business district of Fort Worth, city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States....
and in 1999 opened a European hub at Charles de Gaulle International Airport
Charles de Gaulle International Airport
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport , also known as Roissy Airport , in the Paris area, is one of the world's principal aviation centres, as well as France's largest airport. It is named after Charles de Gaulle , leader of the Free French Forces and founder of the French Fifth Republic...
in France. In 2000, the company officially dropped the "Federal Express" name and became "FedEx Express" to distinguish its express shipping service from others offered by its parent company FedEx Corporation.
In 2001, FedEx Express signed a 7-year contract to transport Express Mail and Priority Mail for the United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
. This contract allowed FedEx to place drop boxes at every USPS post office. In 2007, the contract was extended until September 2013. USPS continues to be the largest customer of FedEx Express.
In December 2006, FedEx Express acquired the British courier company ANC Holdings Limited for £120 million. The acquisition added 35 sort facilities to the FedEx network and the company introduced Newark, Memphis, and Indianapolis routes directly to UK airports instead of stopping at FedEx's European hub at Charles de Gaulle Airport. In September 2007, ANC was rebranded as FedEx UK. FedEx Express also acquired Flying-Cargo Hungary Kft to expand service in Eastern Europe.
Economic downturn
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...
and the Airbus A310
Airbus A310
The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engine widebody jet airliner. Launched in July 1978, it was the second aircraft created by Airbus Industrie,a consortium of European aerospace companies, Airbus is now fully owned by EADS and since 2001 has been known as Airbus SAS. the consortium of...
. FedEx also announced layoffs and work hour reductions at some of its hubs.
In December 2008, FedEx postponed delivery of the new Boeing 777 Freighter, four will be delivered in 2010 as previously agreed, but in 2011, FedEx will only take delivery of four, rather than the 10 originally planned. The remaining aircraft will be delivered in 2012 and 2013.
FedEx Express closed a hub for the first time in its history, when operations at its Asian-Pacific hub at Subic Bay International Airport
Subic Bay International Airport
-Cargo airlines:As of October 2010, there are no cargo airlines operating in Subic Bay International Airport.FedEx Express closed its hub at Subic Bay on February 6, 2009, this was the first hub to be closed in FedEx's history...
in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
ceased on February 6, 2009. The operations were transferred to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is the main airport of Guangzhou, the capital of the province of Guangdong, People's Republic of China. Both airport codes were inherited from the previous Guangzhou airport, and the IATA code reflects Guangzhou's former romanization Canton...
in southern China.
FedEx Express had planned to open the new Chinese hub in December 2008 but in November 2008, the company delayed the opening until early 2009 citing the need to fully test the new hub.
On June 2, 2009, FedEx opened the new hub building at Piedmont Triad International Airport
Piedmont Triad International Airport
Piedmont Triad International Airport is an airport just west of Greensboro, serving Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem as well as the entire Piedmont Triad Region in North Carolina. The airport has 3 runways; the third opened January 27, 2010 for traffic. The airport is located just off...
in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
. FedEx announced in December 2008, that it still intended to open the building on time, despite the bad economy. The hub's operations would be scaled back from 1,500 employees to only 160, the size of the previous operations at the much smaller sorting facility. FedEx gave no time line as to when the hub will be operating at expected hub levels.
The hub had been delayed many years since FedEx first picked the airport to be its Mid-Atlantic
Mid-Atlantic States
The Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
U.S. hub back in 1998. FedEx had to fight many complaints from nearby homeowners about the anticipated noise generated by its aircraft, because most of its flights take place at night. A third runway was built to accommodate the hub operation and the extra aircraft.
On October 27, 2010, FedEx opened its Central and Eastern European hub at Cologne Bonn Airport
Cologne Bonn Airport
Cologne/Bonn Airport is an international airport located in the district of Porz in the city of Cologne, Germany, and is surrounded by the Wahner Heide nature reserve. The airport is centrally located in the Cologne/Bonn Region southeast of Cologne city centre and northeast of Bonn...
. The hub features a fully automated sorting system that can process up to 18,000 packages per hour. The roof of the hub features FedEx's largest solar power installation, producing 800,000 kilowatt hours per year.
Fleet
The FedEx Express fleet consists of the following aircraft as of September 22, 2011| Aircraft | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A300-600 | 71 | |
| Airbus A310-200/300 Airbus A310 The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engine widebody jet airliner. Launched in July 1978, it was the second aircraft created by Airbus Industrie,a consortium of European aerospace companies, Airbus is now fully owned by EADS and since 2001 has been known as Airbus SAS. the consortium of... |
53 | Exiting service: 3 in 2012 |
| Boeing 727–200 | 61 | Exiting service: 23 in 2012, 9 in 2013, 19 in 2014, 10 in 2015, 6 in 2016 Replacement aircraft: Boeing 757–200 Boeing 757 The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Passenger versions of the twinjet have a capacity of 186 to 289 persons and a maximum range of , depending on variant and cabin configuration... Fitted with hush kit Hush kit A hush kit is a device for reducing noise from an engine; most commonly the term refers to devices which reduce noise emissions from low-bypass turbofan engines, as fitted to older commercial aircraft .... s |
| Boeing 757–200 | 59 (20 used orders) |
Entering service: 16 in 2012, 4 in 2013 Replacing Boeing 727–200 Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced... |
| Boeing 777F | 13 (28 orders) (15 options Option (aircraft purchasing) An option, when purchasing aircraft, allows an airline to purchase additional aircraft in the future at an agreed price and date.When placing orders for new aircraft, airlines commonly obtain options from the aircraft manufacturer, for example Airbus or Boeing... ) |
Entry into service: 2009–2019 Entering service: 6 in 2012, 6 in 2013, 7 in 2014, 3 in 2015, 3 in 2016, 3 in 2017 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a... |
58 | |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-10-30 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a... |
17 |
Exiting service: 1 in 2012, 2 in 2013, 3 in 2014 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-11 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller... |
64 | |
| ATR 42-300/320 ATR 42 -Civil operators:The largest operators of the ATR-42 are FedEx Express, Airlinair, TRIP Linhas Aéreas,and Mexico City-based Aeromar respectively. Number of aircraft as of 2010:Some 70 other airlines operate smaller numbers of the type.... |
26 | Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| ATR 72–200 ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional airliner built by the French-Italian aircraft manufacturer ATR. ATR and Airbus are both built in Toulouse, and share resources and technology... |
21 | Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| Cessna Caravan 208B | 244 | Entry into service: 5 in 2012, 5 in 2013 Operated as FedEx Feeder |
| Total | 687 |
Airbus A300
The Airbus A300 is a short- to medium-range widebody jet airliner. Launched in 1972 as the world's first twin-engined widebody, it was the first product of Airbus Industrie, a consortium of European aerospace companies, wholly owned today by EADS...
, Airbus A310
Airbus A310
The Airbus A310 is a medium- to long-range twin-engine widebody jet airliner. Launched in July 1978, it was the second aircraft created by Airbus Industrie,a consortium of European aerospace companies, Airbus is now fully owned by EADS and since 2001 has been known as Airbus SAS. the consortium of...
, ATR 42
ATR 42
-Civil operators:The largest operators of the ATR-42 are FedEx Express, Airlinair, TRIP Linhas Aéreas,and Mexico City-based Aeromar respectively. Number of aircraft as of 2010:Some 70 other airlines operate smaller numbers of the type....
, Boeing 727, Cessna 208
Cessna 208
The Cessna 208 Caravan is a single turboprop engine, fixed-gear short-haul regional airliner and utility aircraft built in the United States by Cessna. The airplane typically seats nine passengers, with a single person crew, although with a FAR Part 23 waiver, it can seat up to fourteen passengers...
, McDonnell Douglas DC-10/MD-10
McDonnell Douglas DC-10
The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...
, and the McDonnell Douglas MD-11
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller...
. The company took delivery of the last Boeing 727 built in September 1984 and the last A300/A310 built in July 2007. To be able to respond to changing freight demand quickly, FedEx Express tends to keep a number of empty planes in the air.
In 2007, FedEx revealed plans to acquire 90 Boeing 757-200s. Because production ended in 2005, FedEx was left with no choice but to acquire secondhand aircraft from other airlines at a cost of US$2.6 billion to replace its aging Boeing 727 fleet. The 757's debut for revenue service was on May 28, 2008.
FedEx Express was to have been the launch airline for the Airbus A380
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Due to its size, many airports had to modify and improve facilities to accommodate it...
freighter, having ordered ten for delivery between 2008 and 2011 with options on ten more. The company had planned to introduce the first aircraft into service in August 2008 for use on routes between hubs in the United States and Asia. Faced with A380 delays of more than two years, FedEx canceled these orders and replaced them with an order for 15 Boeing 777Fs
Boeing 777
The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven". The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from , depending on model...
with an option for 15 more, to be delivered from 2009 through 2011. FedEx has said that Airbus
Airbus
Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....
will allow it to transfer its nonrefundable deposits to purchases of future aircraft, and has stated it may consider the A380F when the A380 program is less affected by construction delays. In December 2008, FedEx postponed delivery of some of the 777s: four were be delivered in 2010 as previously agreed, and four more in 2011, rather than the 10 originally planned. Five more will arrive in 2012, and two in 2013. In January 2009, FedEx exercised its options to buy 15 more 777 freighters and acquired options for a further 15.
With one of the world's largest air fleets, FedEx Express is the largest member of the United States Civil Reserve Air Fleet
Civil Reserve Air Fleet
The Civil Reserve Air Fleet is part of the United States's mobility resources. Selected aircraft from U.S. airlines, contractually committed to Civil Reserve Air Fleet, support United States Department of Defense airlift requirements in emergencies when the need for airlift exceeds the capability...
in terms of aircraft pledged.
The first Dassault Falcon 20C delivered to FedEx (N8FE) is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
FedEx Feeder
Propeller (aircraft)
Aircraft propellers or airscrews convert rotary motion from piston engines or turboprops to provide propulsive force. They may be fixed or variable pitch. Early aircraft propellers were carved by hand from solid or laminated wood with later propellers being constructed from metal...
-driven aircraft which feed packages to and from airports served by larger jet aircraft.
In the United States and Canada, FedEx Express operates FedEx Feeder on a damp lease program where the contractor will lease the aircraft from FedEx fleet and provide a crew to operate the aircraft solely for FedEx. All of the feeder aircraft operated in the United States and Canada are owned by FedEx and because of this all of the aircraft are in the FedEx Feeder livery. Just like regional airlines, the contractor will operate the aircraft with their own flight number and call sign.
Outside the United States, the contractor will supply their own aircraft, which may or may not be in the FedEx Feeder livery. Depending on the arrangement with FedEx, the contractor may be able to carry cargo for other companies with the FedEx cargo.
List of contract carriers:
- Air ContractorsAir ContractorsAir Contractors Limited is a freight airline. It operates scheduled freight services throughout Europe on behalf of major integrators such as FedEx Feeder and DHL Express...
(Largest contractor, European Partner) - Baron Aviation ServicesBaron Aviation ServicesBaron Aviation Services is an American cargo airline based in Vichy, Missouri, USA. It was established in 1973 and operates small package express cargo services on behalf of FedEx Express...
- Corporate AirCorporate AirCorporate Air is a airline based in Billings, Montana, United States. It was established in 1981 and operates primarily domestic scheduled cargo services, Feeder service on behalf of FedEx Express, as well as the United States Postal Service...
- CSA AirCSA AirCSA Air is a cargo airline based in Kingsford, Michigan, USA. It operates express cargo services in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota and Canada, operating 52 flights a day. Its main base is Ford Airport, Iron Mountain, Michigan....
- Empire AirlinesEmpire AirlinesEmpire Airlines is a charter and cargo airline based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, USA. It operates over 120 scheduled and charter cargo flights a day in 18 US states and Canada. Its main base is Coeur d'Alene Airport with a hub at Spokane International Airport....
- Merlin AirwaysMerlin AirwaysMerlin Airways is an American airline based in Billings, Montana, USA. It operates freight services under contract to FedEx Express and UPS Airlines. The airline previously conducted FAR Part 121 passenger operations in Alaska and Texas as well as providing charter service for gambling junkets...
- Morningstar Air ExpressMorningstar Air ExpressMorningstar Air Express Inc. is a cargo airline based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It operates a contract all-cargo service from Montreal to Winnipeg for FedEx Express, as well as all-cargo charter services. Its main base is Edmonton City Centre Airport....
- Mountain Air CargoMountain Air CargoMountain Air Cargo is an American cargo airline based in Denver, North Carolina, USA. It is a major contract carrier for FedEx Express, operating in the eastern USA and the Caribbean. Previous operations in South America have been discontinued by FedEx who now operate jet aircraft in that area. Its...
- SolinairSolinairSolinair is an airline based in Slovenia operating charter cargo services. It operates for UPS and TNT, as well as running flight training. It was established and started operations in 1991 and its bases are Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport and Portorož Airport .- Fleet :The Solinair fleet consists...
- West Air Inc.West AirWest Air, Inc. is an American airline based in Fresno, California, USA. West Air, Inc. provides feeder service on behalf of FedEx Express throughout California and parts of Nevada and Utah.- History :...
- Wiggins AirwaysWiggins AirwaysWiggins Airways is an American fixed base operator, cargo airline, and charter airline based at Manchester, New Hampshire and operating from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.-History:...
Delivery fleet
In 2003, FedEx Express introduced hybridHybrid vehicle
A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles , which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors.-Power:...
electric/diesel trucks into its fleet. At the time the company had hoped to replace its entire 30,000 W700 delivery truck fleet with the hybrid, but in June 2009 only 170 were on the road. Ninety-three of these operate in the United States in New York, Tampa
Tâmpa
Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...
, Sacramento
Sacramento
Sacramento is the capital of the state of California, in the United States of America.Sacramento may also refer to:- United States :*Sacramento County, California*Sacramento, Kentucky*Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta...
and Washington, D.C.; the rest operate in Tokyo, Toronto, and Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
. FedEx blamed the low number on a lack of investment from other major companies in hybrid technology. It had hoped that other companies would order hybrid trucks, and that tax credits would be issued by the United States government to reduce the cost.
FedEx claimed that the hybrid truck in the 2003 test decreases soot by 96 percent and emissions by 65 percent. It also claimed that the truck gets more than 50% better gas mileage while still having the same cargo capacity as a conventional truck.
In 2009, FedEx Express partnered with Iveco
Iveco
Iveco, an acronym for Industrial Vehicle Corporation, originally an alliance of European commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Fiat , Unic and Magirus. Iveco is now an Italian truck, bus, and diesel engine manufacturer, based in Turin...
and started a new test program of hybrid
Hybrid vehicle
A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles , which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors.-Power:...
electric/diesel vans. The test program will consist of 10 hybrid vans deployed in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
and Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Italy. FedEx claims the new vans will have a 26.5% reduction in fuel consumption and a decrease in carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
emissions of 7.5 tons when compared to FedEx's standard vehicle. The trial will continue until May 2010 and after the program's conclusion, FedEx will evaluate if the vans should be deployed on a larger scale.
In July 2009, FedEx Express partnered with Freightliner
Freightliner Trucks
Freightliner Trucks is an American manufacturer of heavy duty trucks, chassis and semi-trailer trucks in the United States. The company was founded as Freightliner Inc in 1942 and is now a division of Daimler Trucks North America, a subsidiary of the German Daimler AG...
and Eaton Corporation
Eaton Corporation
Eaton Corporation is a global diversified power management company with 2010 sales of $13.7 billion. The company is a leading provider of electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment;...
to convert 92 delivery trucks into hybrids. The conversions boosted FedEx's fleet of hybrid-electric vehicle
Hybrid vehicle
A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles , which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors.-Power:...
s by more than 50 percent to 264. The trucks were placed into service in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
In November 2009, FedEx Express purchased 51 gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles from Azure Dynamics. The new trucks will be put into service in The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York City. The Bronx will be FedEx's first all hybrid station. The addition will bring FedEx Express’ fleet of hybrid electric and electric vehicles to 325.
Air fleet
FedEx Express has set a goal of getting 30 percent of its jet fuel from petroleum alternatives by 2030.FedEx is currently in the process of phasing out Boeing 727s for its fleet in favor of newer Boeing 757
Boeing 757
The Boeing 757 is a mid-size, narrow-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Passenger versions of the twinjet have a capacity of 186 to 289 persons and a maximum range of , depending on variant and cabin configuration...
s, the airline says the 757s are 47 percent more fuel-efficient. FedEx will soon switch from MD-11
McDonnell Douglas MD-11
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller...
s to Boeing 777
Boeing 777
The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven". The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from , depending on model...
s for its long-range, international routes, freeing up the MD-11 fleet to fly shorter routes currently flown by the DC-10.
Major incidents and accidents
- April 7, 1994 – Flight 705FedEx Flight 705On April 7, 1994, FedEx Flight 705, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 cargo jet ferrying electronics across the United States from Memphis, Tennessee to San Jose, California, experienced an attempted hijacking for the purpose of a suicide attack....
– N306FE, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10McDonnell Douglas DC-10The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...
-30 flying from Memphis International AirportMemphis International AirportMemphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
to San Jose International AirportSan Jose International AirportNorman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport is a city-owned public-use airport serving the city of San Jose in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is named for San Jose native Norman Yoshio Mineta, who was Transportation Secretary in the Cabinet of George W...
experienced an attempted hijacking by a soon to be terminated employee. Auburn Calloway, the hijacker, planned to use the aircraft for a kamikazeKamikazeThe were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
attack on FedEx Corporation headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. The crew of Flight 705 were able to subdue Calloway and land the plane safely. The crew's injuries disabled them from flying professionally from then on. - September 5, 1996 – N68055, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10McDonnell Douglas DC-10The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...
-10 was written off after it was destroyed by fire at Stewart International AirportStewart International AirportStewart International Airport is located in the southern Hudson Valley, west of Newburgh, New York and over north of Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The airport is located in the Town of Newburgh and the Town of New Windsor."." U.S. Census Bureau...
, Newburgh, New York. The aircraft made an emergency landing at the airport due to a smoke alarm, after landing the fire consumed the aircraft. - July 31, 1997 – Flight 14FedEx Flight 14Federal Express flight 14 was a flight between Anchorage International Airport , Anchorage, Alaska and Newark International Airport , Newark, New Jersey that crashed during landing on July 31, 1997.-Summary:...
, N611FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11McDonnell Douglas MD-11The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller...
was written off after it crashed during landing at Newark International Airport from Anchorage International Airport. The No. 3 engine contacted the runway during a rough landing which caused the aircraft to flip over and catch fire. - October 17, 1999 – Flight 87, N581FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11McDonnell Douglas MD-11The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller...
was written off after landing at Subic Bay International AirportSubic Bay International Airport-Cargo airlines:As of October 2010, there are no cargo airlines operating in Subic Bay International Airport.FedEx Express closed its hub at Subic Bay on February 6, 2009, this was the first hub to be closed in FedEx's history...
from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. When landing, the aircraft continued down the whole length of the runway and plunged into the bay where it was completely submerged. - July 26, 2002 – Flight 1478, N497FE, a Boeing 727-200 was written off after it crashed into the tree line on approach to Tallahassee Regional AirportTallahassee Regional AirportTallahassee Regional Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located four nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Tallahassee, a city in Leon County, Florida, United States.- History :...
from Memphis International AirportMemphis International AirportMemphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
. The aircraft's landing gear hit a tree about 70 feet (21.3 m) high and 3100 feet (944.9 m) short of the runway which caused the aircraft to crash into the trees. - December 18, 2003 – Flight 647FedEx Flight 647FedEx Express Flight 647 was a flight between Metropolitan Oakland International Airport , Oakland, California and Memphis International Airport , Memphis, Tennessee that crashed during landing on December 18, 2003.-Final moments:...
, N364FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10McDonnell Douglas DC-10The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...
was written off after it ran off the runway at Memphis International AirportMemphis International AirportMemphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
from Metropolitan Oakland International Airport. The right main landing gear collapsed and caused the aircraft to veer off the runway. It was destroyed in the subsequent fire. - July 28, 2006 – Flight 630, N391FE a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10McDonnell Douglas DC-10The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 is a three-engine widebody jet airliner manufactured by McDonnell Douglas. The DC-10 has range for medium- to long-haul flights, capable of carrying a maximum 380 passengers. Its most distinguishing feature is the two turbofan engines mounted on underwing pylons and a...
was severely damaged after its left main landing gear collapsed at Memphis International AirportMemphis International AirportMemphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....
from Seattle-Tacoma International AirportSeattle-Tacoma International AirportThe Seattle–Tacoma International Airport , also known as Sea–Tac Airport or Sea–Tac , is an American airport located in SeaTac, Washington, at the intersections of State Routes 99 and 509 and 518, about west of Interstate 5...
. After the landing gear failed, the engine contacted the runway and caused a small fire and structural damage to the aircraft. - May 8, 2008 – N904FX and N905FX, two ATR-42-320s were written off after they suffered substantial damage at Piedmont Triad International AirportPiedmont Triad International AirportPiedmont Triad International Airport is an airport just west of Greensboro, serving Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem as well as the entire Piedmont Triad Region in North Carolina. The airport has 3 runways; the third opened January 27, 2010 for traffic. The airport is located just off...
when the airport was hit by a F2Fujita scaleThe Fujita scale , or Fujita-Pearson scale, is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation...
tornadoTornadoA tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
. Both aircraft were parked when they were struck by the tornado, one aircraft was blown into a ditch and the other was blown into a fence. - March 23, 2009 – Flight 80FedEx Express Flight 80FedEx Express Flight 80 was a scheduled cargo flight from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in the People's Republic of China, to Narita International Airport in Narita, Chiba Prefecture , Japan...
, N526FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11McDonnell Douglas MD-11The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is a three-engine medium- to long-range widebody jet airliner, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and, later, by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Based on the DC-10, it features a stretched fuselage, increased wingspan with winglets, refined airfoils on the wing and smaller...
crashed at Narita International AirportNarita International Airportis an international airport serving the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is located east of Tokyo Station and east-southeast of Narita Station in the city of Narita, and the adjacent town of Shibayama....
during landing in windy conditions. The aircraft touched down and bounced on its nose gear back into the air, coming down again on its nose gear before bouncing back up. The nose gear impacted one final time before the aircraft banked to the left and the wing clipped the ground. The aircraft burst into flames and came to rest upside down. Both the pilot and co-pilot died as a result of the crash, making it the first fatal accident in the airline's history.
Northrop Grumman Guardian
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over...
to develop and flight test an anti-missile system, the Northrop Grumman Guardian
Northrop Grumman Guardian
The Northrop Grumman Guardian is a passive anti-missile countermeasure system designed specifically to protect commercial airliners from shoulder-launched missiles , using directed infrared countermeasures technology....
. It is intended that this system could be deployed on commercial airliners to protect them from terrorist attacks such as the 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident. FedEx supplied a MD-11 and a leased 747 for the flight test phase.
FedEx Express became the first air carrier to deploy the Guardian on a commercial flight in September, 2006, when they equipped a MD-10 freighter with the pod. The company currently has nine aircraft equipped with the system for further testing and evaluation. Because of the program's success, the US Congress directed DHS to extend it to passenger-carrying aircraft.
See also
- Air transportation in the United States
- AviationAviationAviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
- DHL AviationDHL AviationDHL Aviation is a division of DHL Express responsible for providing air transport capacity. It is not a single airline but refers to several airlines owned, co-owned or chartered by DHL Express...
- FedEx Corporation
- List of airlines of the United States
- List of airports in the United States
- List of companies of the United States
- TNT AirwaysTNT AirwaysTNT Airways, a subsidiary of TNT Express, is a cargo and passenger airline, operating chartered flights to mainly European destinations...
- Transportation in the United StatesTransportation in the United StatesTransportation in the United States is facilitated by road, air, rail, and water networks. The vast majority of passenger travel occurs by automobile for shorter distances, and airplane for longer distances...
- UPS AirlinesUPS AirlinesUPS Airlines is an American cargo airline owned by United Parcel Service Inc. . The company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Its home airport is located at Louisville International Airport...
- USPS