FedEx outlines MD-11F retirement

FedEx is expecting a slump in the demand for airfreight and is embarking on a restructuring of its air cargo network in order to boost its profitability. By 2025, the company hopes to save 2 billion USD by focusing more on ground transportation, flying more point-to-point, increasing the usage of outsourced airfreight capacity and by retiring its oldest aircraft in the fleet, especially the MD-11F. FedEx expects to have phased-out the type completely by 2028.

Currently, the carrier has a fleet of 51 MD-11Fs, making it the world's largest operator of the trijet. Next to this, FedEx and its core partners in Canada, Europe, and US operate seventeen ATR42-300Fs, twenty ATR72-200Fs, eleven ATR72-600Fs, 65 Airbus A300-600Fs, eight Boeing B737-300SFs, seven B737-800BCFs, 118 B757-200Fs, 127 B767-300Fs, 53 B777Fs, 235 Cessna 208Fs, and seven Cessna 408Fs.

FedEx welcomed its first MD-11F in June 1994 and has already retired eighteen MD-11Fs from its active fleet over the last years.

Photo by Anton Homma.