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FedEx Express
IATA FX	ICAO FDX	Callsign FEDEX
Founded		1971 (as Federal Express)
Hubs		"SuperHub" Memphis International Airport United States: Indianapolis International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport Oakland International Airport Fort Worth Alliance Airport Latin America-Caribbean: Miami International Airport Europe/Middle East/Africa: Charles de Gaulle International Airport Asia Pacific: Subic Bay International Airport Canada: Toronto Pearson International Airport
Fleet size		672 (+89 orders, 15 options)
Destinations		375+
Parent company		FedEx Corporation
Headquarters		Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Key people		David J Bronczek, President and CEO of Express division
Website: http://www.fedex.com

FedEx Express is a cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It is the world's largest airline in terms of aircraft and in terms of freight tons flown. It is a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation and delivers packages and freight to more than 375 destinations in over 220 countries each day.^[1]

Its headquarters are in Memphis with its global "SuperHub" located at Memphis International Airport; with regional hubs at Indianapolis International Airport, Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Oakland International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Charles de Gaulle International Airport, Subic Bay International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Miami International Airport.^[2] FedEx Express has hubs under construction at Piedmont Triad International Airport^[3],Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Cologne Bonn Airport^[4].

[edit] History

[edit] Early History

First FedEx aircraft, on display at National Air and Space Museum

FedEx Express was founded as Federal Express by Fred Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1971. Fred Smith moved the company in 1973 to Memphis, Tennessee and the Memphis International Airport after a lack of support from the Little Rock National Airport, Federal Express started overnight operations on April 17, 1973 with 14 Dassault Falcon 20s that connected 25 cities in the United States. 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". Federal Express began to run into money problems and when the company was unable to get a loan, Fred Smith flew to Las Vegas and won $27,000 at the black jack tables to keep the company afloat.^[5] The company installed its first drop box in 1975 and allowed customers to drop off packages without going to a company local branch. ^[6] In 1976, Federal Express became profitable with an average volume of 19,000 per day.

In 1977, the Cargo airline deregulation was enacted allowing Federal Express to grow rapidly and purchase its first large aircraft: seven Boeing 727s. In 1978, Federal Express went public and was listed on The New York Stock Exchange. In 1979, the company launched “COSMOS” (Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System), a centralized computer system to manage people, packages, vehicles and weather scenarios in real time. Federal Express was the first shipping company to use a computer to manage packages, a year later 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. ^[6]

[edit] Rapid Growth

In 1980, Federal Express began service to 90 cities in the United States. In 1981, Federal Express introduced the overnight letter and allowed document shipping for the first time, later that year; it started international operations with service to Canada, in 1981, Federal Express officially opened its “SuperHub” at the Memphis International Airport. Federal Express sales toped $1 billion for the first time in 1983.^[5] Also in 1983, the company introduced ZapMail, a fax service that guaranteed the delivery of five pages or less 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. This system introduced tracking to the shipping industry. Federal Express began a rapid expansion process in the late 80’s and opened its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in 1986, and its hubs at Indianapolis International Airport and Oakland International Airport in 1988. In 1989, Federal Express acquired Flying Tiger Line to expand its international service, with the expanded international service; the company opened its hub at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. As the volume of international shipments increased, Federal Express created Clear Electronic Customs Clearance System to expedite regulatory clearance while cargo is en route. ^[7]

[edit] FedEx Era

A FedEx Express delivery truck, showing the dual branding, both "FedEx" and "Federal Express" that the company used from 1994 to 2000

In 1994, Federal Express adopted the "FedEx" name. Until that point the abbreviation was unofficial. Also that year, FedEx launched Fedex.com as the first transportation Web site to offer online package tracking, allowing customers to conduct business via the Internet. In 1995, FedEx acquired air routes from Evergreen International to start service to China and opened the Asia and Pacific hub in Subic Bay International Airport. In 1997 FedEx opened its hub at Fort Worth Alliance Airport and in 1999; the company opened its European hub at Charles de Gaulle International Airport. In 2000, the company officially dropped the “Federal Express” name and becomes “FedEx Express” as its parent company FedEx Corporation started to offer other services besides express shipping. ^[6]

In 2000, FedEx Express signed a 7-year contract to transport Express Mail and Priority Mail for the United States Postal Service. The contract also allowed FedEx to place drop boxes at every USPS post office. The USPS contract has recently been extended until September 2013 and USPS continues to be the largest customer of FedEx Express^[8]. FedEx Express acquired the courier company ANC Holdings Limited in December 2006 for £120 million.^[9] The acquisition added 35 airport sort facilities to the FedEx network and FedEx introduced Newark, Memphis, and Indianapolis routes directly to UK airports instead of stopping at FedEx's European hub at Charles De Gaulle Airport^[10]. In September 2007, ANC was rebranded as FedEx UK. FedEx Express also acquired Flying-Cargo Hungary Kft to expand service in Eastern Europe. ^[7]

[edit] Upcoming Events

A DC-10 landing at San Jose.

FedEx Express had planned to open its new Asian-Pacific hub at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in southern China in December 2008 but in November 2008, FedEx pushed back the date back to early 2009. FedEx did not give a full reason as to why they pushed the date back but, said that it would allow the company to fully test the new hub. When the hub opens it will be FedEx's largest hub outside of the United States^[11].

In June 2009, FedEx will open the Mid-Atlantic U.S. hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. In December 2008, FedEx Express said that they will open the hub on time but it will operate at nowhere near capacity. FedEx had planned for up to 1,500 workers for the hub but will open it with only 160 employees. FedEx cited the bad economy for the massive reduction in the hub's future operations^[12]. FedEx has also been fighting complaints since it first picked the airport in 1998 about the possible noise generated by its aircraft because most FedEx flights take place at night. Despite the complaints, FedEx has continued with construction on the hub and the airport has continued with infrastructure upgrades to handle the additional flights.^[13]

In 2008, FedEx Express broke ground on its Central and Eastern European hub at Cologne Bonn Airport due for completion in 2010. In addition, the Cologne hub will have a 1.4-megawatt solar power system.^[14]

[edit] Fleet

A McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

FedEx Express operates the world's largest civil air fleet with 672 aircraft^[2] With the world's largest fleet, it is also the largest member of the United States Civil Reserve Air Fleet in terms of aircraft pledged.^[15]FedEx Express 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 very 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 took delivery of the last Boeing 727 built in September 1984 and took delivery of the last A300/A310 built in July 2007^[16].To be able to respond quickly to demand, FedEx Express tends to keep a number of empty planes in the air to respond quickly to changing freight demands.^[17]

FedEx Express had ordered ten Airbus A380 freighters, with options on ten more. FedEx was to be the launch airline for the Airbus A380-800F and planned to introduce the first aircraft to service in August 2008 for use on routes between hubs in the United States and Asia. The aircraft ordered were to be delivered between 2008 and 2011 With A380 delays of more than two years, FedEx canceled these orders^[18] and replaced them with an order from Boeing for fifteen 777 Freighters with an option for fifteen more, to be delivered in 2009 through 2011. FedEx said that Airbus will allow them to move their nonrefundable deposits to purchases of future aircraft. FedEx has stated they may consider the A380F when Airbus is less constrained by construction developments. In December 2008, FedEx delayed delivery of the 777s. FedEx will now take delivery of four B777Fs in 2010, as previously agreed. In 2011, Boeing will deliver only four, rather than the 10 originally planned. Five more will arrive in 2012 and two in 2013.^[19]

In 2007, FedEx revealed plans to acquire 90 Boeing 757-200 aircraft at a cost of US$2.6 billion to replace the aging Boeing 727 fleet^[20]. The 757's debut for revenue service was on May 28, 2008.

[edit] FedEx Feeder

An ATR-42 in Frankfurt

FedEx Feeder is the branding applied to all FedEx Express prop aircraft which feed packages to and from airports served by larger jet aircraft. In most cases FedEx Express operates FedEx Feeder on a wet lease program where a contractor will lease the aircraft and supply the crew and insurance while FedEx will supply the aircraft, registration, landing fees, and ground crews. Some flights may operate with a FedEx Express flight number (FX) but most flights use the flight number of the contractor.

List of contract carriers:

• Air Contractors
• Air Tahoma
• Baron Aviation Services
• Corporate Air
• CSA Air
• Empire Airlines
• Merlin Airways
• Morningstar Air Express
• Mountain Air Cargo
• West Air Inc.
• Wiggins Airways

[edit] Environmental initiatives

In 2003, FedEx Express introduced hybrid electric/diesel trucks to its fleet. At the time FedEx had hoped to replace its entire 30,000 W700 delivery truck fleet with the hybrid. As of October 2008, FedEx only had 172 hybrid trucks on the road. FedEx blamed the low number on lack of investment from other major companies in hybrid technology. FedEx had hoped for other companies to order hybrid trucks and tax credits would be issued by the United States government to bring the cost of the trucks down.^[21]

FedEx claims that the truck decreases soot by 96 percent and emissions by 65 percent. FedEx also claims that the truck gets more than 50% better gas mileage while still having the same cargo capacity as a conventional truck^[22]. Currently, FedEx Express operates 93 hybrid trucks in the United States in New York, Tampa, Sacramento and Washington, D.C.. The rest of the trucks operate in operate in Tokyo, Toronto, and Turin.^[22]

[edit] Major incidents and accidents

• April 7, 1994 - Flight 705, N306FE, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 experienced an attempted hijacking by a soon to be terminated employee. Auburn Calloway, the hijacker planned to use the aircraft for a kamikaze attack on FedEx Corporation Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. The crew of Flight 705 were able to fight off Calloway and land the plane safely.^[23]
• September 5, 1996 – N68055, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 was written off after it was destroyed by fire at Stewart International Airport, Newburgh, NY. 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 14, N611FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 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.^[24]
• October 17, 1999 - Flight 87, N581FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was written off after landing at Subic Bay International Airport 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.^[25]
• 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 Airport from Memphis International Airport. The aircraft's landing gear hit a tree about 70 feet high and 3,100 feet short of the runway which caused the aircraft to crash into the trees.^[26]
• December 18, 2003 - Flight 647, N364FE, a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10 was written off after it ran off the runway at Memphis International Airport 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.^[27]
• July 28, 2006 - Flight 630, N391FE a McDonnell Douglas MD-10-10 was written off after its left main landing gear collapsed at Memphis International Airport from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. After the landing gear failed the engine contacted the runway causing a small fire and severe structural damage to the aircraft.^[28]
• May 8, 2008 - Two ATR-42s suffered substantial damage at Piedmont Triad International Airport when the airport was hit by a F2 tornado. 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.^[29]

[edit] Northrop Grumman Guardian

A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 during a test flight of the Guardian, which can be seen mounted to the belly aft of the wings.

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 that could be deployed on commercial airliners, to protect them from terrorist attacks such as the 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident. FedEx supplied an MD-11 and a leased 747 for the flight test phase. FedEx then 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,^[30] FedEx Express currently has nine aircraft equipped with the system for further testing and evaluation.^[31] Because of the program's huge success, the US Congress directed DHS to expand the program to passenger-carrying aircraft^[32].

[edit] See also

• FedEx Corporation (Parent company)
• UPS Airlines (Competitor)
• TNT Airways (Competitor)
• DHL Aviation (Competitor)
• USPS (Competitor and largest customer)
• Air Line Pilots Association, International (Collective bargaining representative for FedEx pilots)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• FedEx
• FedEx Express Facts