FedEx has now returned four MD-11 freighters to operations and anticipates having all of its MD-11Fs in service again by the fourth quarter.
Rajesh Subramaniam, president, chief executive and director of FedEx confirmed the company’s plans in its fourth quarter 2026 earnings call on 23 June.
Air Cargo News reported in May that two of FedEx’s MD-11Fs had returned to the skies, based on data from FlightRadar 24. The express giant had 34 MD-11Fs at the time.
“We began safely returning the MD-11s to service last month, working in lockstep with Boeing, the FAA, and the NTSB,” said Subramaniam.
“I appreciate the efforts of our flight operations, technical operations, and airline safety teams whose work enabled 4 MD-11s to resume flight to date. We expect to have the full fleet back in service before (the) peak.”
MD-11Fs had been grounded for more than six months after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) that ordered owners and operators of MD-11 freighters to inspect their aircraft for faults following the fatal crash of a UPS MD-11Fon 4 November last year.
As well as FedEx, US freighter airline Western Global also started the process of returning its MD-11 freighters to operation in May.
In contrast to FedEx and Western Global, UPS retired all its MD-11Fs in the fourth quarter of 2025 and said it will replace these aircraft with Boeing 767Fs.
Although FedEx decided to continue operating MD-11Fs, it has retired five of the type. Over the last four years it has removed 34 jet aircraft from the overall fleet, confirmed Subramaniam.
Focus on Europe
Outside of the fleet, company-wide growth plans include continuing to focus on Europe, where the company has seen revenue gain.
“In Europe, we achieved our 12th consecutive quarter of international revenue share gains, driven by our strong value proposition and improving service levels,” pointed out Subramaniam.
He added: “We believe Europe remains our largest international profit improvement opportunity, and our transformation plans remain on track.”
Brie Carere, executive vice president & chief customer officer, also stated that FedEx had seen strong momentum from Asia to Europe and intra-Europe.
“We really like the momentum we have intra-Europe. And so we are trading domestic volume for intra-Europe volume, which moves yield and profitability, and we think it’s the right strategy, and we are going to continue to optimize the network, whether it has made significant changes in France with more to come. So we feel good about that.”
She said international volumes are expect to continue growing, including in airfreight market.
“And then, of course, the same is true from an airfreight perspective. We — it’s a very large market, about $80 billion. We’re still a relatively small player, but we’ve had tremendous response to our Tricolor strategy. And so I think that, that momentum will continue.”
