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Mark Twain famously said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” and so it has been with the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 this week. After 
UPS Airlines officially closed the book on its tri-jet era on Tuesday following the tragic crash in Louisville last year, many industry experts said that the MD-11 was gone for good. But Fedex Express has now made it clear that it’s charting a contrarian course.
Rather than accelerating a retirement schedule, FedEx is doubling down on its commitment to the MD-11, treating the iconic tri-jet not as a liability, but as a long-haul lifeline. Reuters reports that the Memphis-based giant is working with US authorities and Boeing, and targeting a full fleet resurrection by the end of May, signaling an unshakable faith in the aircraft’s airworthiness and economic utility.
A Simple Matter Of Economics
FedEx recently raised its full-year 2026 revenue growth forecast to 5%–6%. To hit this higher target, the airline needs every available pound of lift. The MD-11 provides a massive, high-payload “middle gear” between the smaller Boeing 767-300F and the much larger Boeing 777-F. Without the 29 operational MD-11s that it has in its fleet, FedEx would likely have to turn to expensive outsourced lift, which has already eroded profits by $175 million during the grounding of the type following last year’s accident.
As a result, FedEx has made the decision to return the MD-11 to service in May, trading off the short-term maintenance costs for the longer-term revenues gained from keeping legendary workhorse galloping well into the next decade. In an announcement made yesterday, the company said:
“We continue to work with Boeing and the FAA to address any required inspection and maintenance that may be needed to return our MD-11 aircraft safely to service.”
To enable this, FedEx has already conducted the initial MD-11 inspections mandated by the FAA, and is embarking on a program that involves advanced Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) focused on the MD-11’s fuselage and wing-spar attachments. This will include High-Frequency Eddy Current (HFEC) scans, where technicians perform exhaustive analysis of the aircraft to detect microscopic stress fractures that are invisible to the naked eye. It is also focused on reinforcement of the center wing-box area, ensuring the airframes can withstand another 10,000 to 15,000 flight cycles.
FedEx Has MD-11 Advantages That UPS Doesn’t Have
UPS retired the MD-11 because the maintenance and repair on its remaining aircraft to get them back into service was going to take too long and cost too much. It preferred to take a one-time $137 million charge and rely on the 18 new Boeing 767 freighters it will be receiving over the next 15 months to fill the gap. But FedEx had advantages that allowed it to return the MD-11 to the air.
The first of these relates to the 
Boeing service bulletin (MD-11-SL-54-104-A) issued in 2011 that informed operators of four prior failures involving spherical bearing assemblies in MD-11 engine pylons. At the time, Boeing concluded the issue did not pose a “safety of flight” risk and only provided recommendations for inspections. With nothing mandated, UPS chose not to make any adjustments, but FedEx took it upon themselves to go ahead and modify their pylons on their MD-11s. As a UPS engineer recently posted on Reddit:
“I saw the picture of one of the pylons from a FedEx MD11 compared to ours and the difference is huge. Theirs are definitely much more beefier and sturdy.”
As a result, it is likely far less costly for FedEx to return its MD-11s to the air if it has already carried out the pylon work that the FAA might mandate. And it has the largest and most experienced MD-11 maintenance crew in the world at its Memphis base, so if there is other maintenance and testing required, it is well-placed to execute on that quickly to meet the May timeline.
FedEx has another big advantage in that it has retired more than 30 MD-11s over the past three years, keeping them in storage so they can be used for spare parts for its 21 operational examples. With UPS removing its MD-11s from service, the parts market has suddenly grown dramatically, which will allow FedEx to keep its aircraft in the skies for longer. Ironically, its rival’s MD-11 retirements have made the economics of keeping its own MD-11s in service more attractive to FedEx.
The Aircraft Replacing The McDonnell Douglas MD-11
The MD-11s are approaching their operational life, and newer, more efficient types are taking over their role.
The MD-11 Is Crucial To Fedex’s International Pivot
After FedEx lost its air cargo contract with the USPS in 2024, it began a pivot towards more international flying. With US tariffs and the removal of de minimis exemptions curbing demand for US-Asia flights, this has meant an aggressive expansion of capacity in the Asia-Europe market and the intra-Asia trade lanes.
The MD-11 is crucial to this. It is able to lift 92 metric tonnes of cargo, just short of the 102 metric tonnes that the 777F is capable of, but nearly double what the 767 is able to carry. As a result, it is critically important to FedEx’s international strategy to keep the MD-11 airborne.
That strategy was on full view this week as FedEx announced new flights to its newly inaugurated global air transit facility at 
Istanbul Airport. Situated at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the new 25,300 square meter facility can handle 7,000 packages an hour and initiated service in September last year with over 30 weekly FedEx flights.
FedEx has now announced the launch of five new weekly flights connecting Asia-Pacific and Europe via this new hub in Istanbul. Three flights depart from the FedEx APAC hub at 
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, while two flights depart from the FedEx cargo facility at 
Shanghai Pudong International Airport. All flights are operated by FedEx’s Boeing 777F fleet. The airline currently has 59 of the type in operation as the largest operator of the type, and is awaiting the delivery of eight more by the end of next year.
