150th Boeing 767 Delivered To FedEx

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FedEx has been replacing it older MD-11 and Airbus A300 aircraft with the more fuel-efficient 767, and Boeing has already signalled its intentions to close the 767 manufacturing line after FedEx and UPS Airlines, the primary remaining customer orders are fulfilled. These planes are the perfect ‘middle ground’ for the airline, as it provides an optimal balance between payload capacity and fuel efficiency, while also being remarkably adaptable to most major airports. The largest commercial passenger operator of the 767 is Atlanta-based SkyTeam partner Delta Air Lines.

Based on the FedEx model, these planes are ideal for the highly specialised hub and spoke operations that come with express shipping, and when compared to the aging MD-10 and MD-11 it replaces, the 767-300F can offer a reduced fuel consumption by around 30%, which helps lower operating costs by around 20%.

Simple Flying reached out to FedEx for comment on the final 767 delivery, but a spokesperson could not immediately be reached.

Details Of The Aircraft Delivery Flight

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Looking at flight data, the aircraft’s delivery flight departed from Paine Field as FX9050 at 1:49 PM, some 49 minutes late on Thursday, May 28, and had a total flight time of three hours and 45 minutes before touching down at Indianapolis. The plane arrived one hour and 19 minutes behind schedule at 8:34 PM local time.

During the flight, the plane reached a total ground speed of around 534 miles per hour (859 kmph), at a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet. At the time of writing, flight data did not identify that the aircraft was immediately being deployed into service; this may change in the coming hours and days.

For FedEx, its investment in such a large fleet of widebody aircraft dramatically reduces maintenance and training overheads, given the availability of spare parts and training with flight simulation. The 767 shares cockpit commonality with the 757, meaning that both of these planes have been able to be flown by the same pilots, meaning airlines to have higher scheduling flexibility and lower training costs.

Perfect Fill For Middle Ground Operations

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As previously mentioned, the 767 has the ideal capacity and range for many FedEx flights. The plane can carry a payload of around 58 tonnes, with a capable range of 2,922 nautical miles (5,411 km) according to FedEx, meaning that it is suited perfectly for busy domestic routes, or medium-haul international flights.

When compared to newer cargo planes, the 767-300F has a more reasonable wingspan of 156 feet (47 meters) versus others that extend out to more than 190 feet (57 meters), meaning that this plane can operate to heavily congested airports or regional locations without bottlenecking in general operations. A full list of the FedEx fleet is below, as per ch-aviation:

The 767 offers similar capacity to that of the MD10, while also increasing efficiency by sharing spare parts, tooling, and simulation with the 757, and as FedEx is the world’s largest express transportation company, the 767 freighters have reinforced the value of the airline’s capabilities in the current market.