FedEx Corp. is not giving up on the MD-11 despite a protracted grounding of the aging aircraft following a fatal crash in early November that led rival UPS to pull the plug on its MD-11 fleet.
The integrated parcel and freight carrier has consistently projected a rosy outlook for its fleet of 28 MD-11 widebody freighters since the fiery crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, Kentucky, after the left engine separated from the wing during take off. The Federal Aviation Administration banned MD-11s from flying until the entire fleet is thoroughly inspected and any necessary repairs are completed. The National Transportation Safety Board found fatigue cracks in a structural section that held an engine to the left-wing
Richard Smith, CEO of FedEx Airline and chief operating officer of the international segment, said during the company’s Feb. 12 Investor Day outlook that the company is “highly confident in the safe return of those aircraft.”
FedEx (NYSE: FDX) previously stated in its December quarterly earnings presentation that it expects the MD-11s to return to service between March and the end of May. Outsourcing some airlift to other carriers and other steps to make up for the lost MD-11 capacity cost FedEx about $175 million during the peak shipping season.
Aviation authorities have been mum about the status of MD-11 inspections. Boeing issued a service bulletin 14 years ago in which it disclosed four previous separations of an attachment that helps hold engines to the MD-11’s wing, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report in January.
UPS (NYSE: UPS) in late January announced it would permanently retire its 27 MD-11 aircraft. The fleet had an average age of about 32 years and UPS said it will replace them with more modern 767-300 freighters already on order from Boeing. Western Global Airlines, the only other MD-11 operator, has been silent about its plans.
FedEx has been consistently optimistic that the MD-11s will receive a safety clearance and resume flying in its air network. On Nov. 11, Chief Financial Officer John Dietrich declared at an investor conference that the inspection process was expected to be relatively quick and that the airline would return MD-11 cargo jets to service on a rolling basis after they passed safety checks and completed any necessary repairs. His comments came before the NTSB issued its preliminary accident report, in which it highlighted discovery of the fatigue cracks.
FedEx didn’t begin to remove MD-11s from its December schedule until late November even as UPS had determined that the inspection process would last several months. On Dec. 18, Dietrich said FedEx was projecting the aircraft would return to service in the spring period.
In his Investor Day remarks, Smith said regulators and MD-11 supplier Boeing have publicly “lauded the diligence of our maintenance operation, our crew training on that aircraft, as well as the technology we’ve put into it. So we’re confident we can fly that [plane] to 2032.” It’s unclear what comments he was referring to.
FedEx last March said it had extended the retirement deadline for the full MD-11 fleet from 2028 until 2032 because of rising demand for heavy-freight air transport. The airline division has retired about 40 MD-11s over the past four years. Management recently implemented a new strategy aimed at capturing a larger share of the $90 billion for-hire airfreight market.
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