FedEx Images courtesy of FedEx.


distribution model, which offers overnight delivery throughout the US and guarantees express delivery by set times in major cities worldwide, requires the company’s air-service network to be extremely reliable. As a result, FedEx Express needs to ensure its network has a high degree of redundancy so that packages can still be delivered reliably if one or more hubs has an operational problem, says Mitchell. For instance, both the Paris and Cologne Bonn hubs have direct flight links to areas such as Scandinavia, as well as non-stop service to and from Memphis. Indianapolis handles “just under half” the daily package volume that Memphis does, duplicates much of the US domestic network and has its own direct FedEx Express international flights to Asia and Europe.


Meanwhile, as the company’s regional hub for the highly populated north eastern US, Newark has its own direct flights to Europe, as well as transpacific service via Anchorage. The network’s inbuilt redundancy has


proved very important this winter, says Mitchell, with both CDG and the normally snow-free Memphis having been hit hard by snowstorms. (When Fred Smith founded the company as Federal Express in 1971, he chose Memphis as the company’s hub because of the airport’s excellent weather record). Thirdly, a multiple-hub model creates


most efficient way to create an enormous number of connections,” he says. Were FedEx Express to try to duplicate its air-service network using a purely point-to-point model, it would need a fleet of 10,000 aircraft. While the carrier’s existing fleet of 684 aircraft – 252 of them single-engine Cessna Grand Caravan turboprops, but most of the rest large jets – makes FedEx Express one of the world’s largest airlines in its own right, its fleet is only about one-fifteenth of the size it would otherwise need to be. FedEx Express also needs multiple hubs because its time-sensitive


GLOBAL AIRPORT CITIES


a significant number of major gateways close to areas of major population. In many cases this means the company can overfly one hub and serve another directly, allowing it to offer later drop-off times and earlier delivery times in urban areas around that hub. For instance, Newark operates flights


directly to and from Europe rather than having its packages and cargo route via Memphis, which would add several hours to the overall transit time and in all likelihood require both an earlier drop-off time and a later delivery time. “The challenge for the East Coast is the short delivery-time window in the morning,” for flights arriving from Asia and Europe, explains Mitchell. Having Newark dispatch and receive its own


flights “allows a near point of entry” for international cargo.


Miami is an unusual hub for


FedEx Express. While the city has long been recognised as being a key point of entry for Latin America, the company does not serve Latin America directly from Miami. FedEx Express’ own Latin America flights operate from Memphis. However, the integrator also uses a


substantial amount of belly-hold capacity on other airlines’ flights to and from Latin America and Mitchell says that most of his company’s Latin America cargo that is carried by other airlines is cleared at Miami. FedEx Express also operates a new, solar-powered hub at Cologne Bonn Airport as both a major European gateway and as a regional hub for Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and the fast-growing Central and Eastern European economies. In the UK, FedEx operates a hub


at Stansted Airport, while its bases in Asia include Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo, which are connected to Memphis and Paris by one or more direct daily flights. Elsewhere, FedEx Express has a Canadian gateway hub at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, which processes international cargo from and to Memphis for onward distribution. Anchorage, essentially just a refuelling point for freighters, is now an important air cargo centre in its own right. Four other US domestic hubs also do duty as significant gateways for FedEx Express’ international cargo shipments: the company’s second US national hub at Indianapolis, its regional West Coast hub at Oakland; its regional East Coast hub at Newark; and its hub at Miami International Airport. Today, most of FedEx Express’ growth is international and the company continues to develop its six US hubs as necessary in order to increase its international-traffic volume. While this involves developing new sorting facilities and expanding existing ones, Mitchell says a key requirement for international- hub growth is to expand the space available for cargo clearance.


Issue 1, Volume 5 21


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