This operation is amazing. I was in Memphis for a Transportation Conference and got invited to have lunch with Fred Smith and his staff. He told the story about how they started out with their first sort. They drew three circles on the floor and put the packages in them. He said that they were so short of funds that the pilots were paying for their own fuel. I bet those pilots are retired and rich now. He invited us to come back in the evening and watch the show. It was incredible how they moved the freight and the long line of FedEx planes lined up for landing and later take off. It was a great experience.
I flew to MEM in April 2019 on my way back from a trip to the Carribbean. I was just blown away by the sheer size of this place! Incredibly innovative & modern. Way to go FedEx❤️
We are looking west and I think the Moon set was cool also. This sort facility is is north and slightly east of the three main north/south runways at MEM. There is an east/west runway as well but it is mainly used by private aircraft. Probably 90% of the takeoffs and landings here are FedEx. Most of FedEx shipments are routed through Memphis. In the beginning ALL shipments came through this hub because Fred Smith reasoned that it would make overnight easier to accomplish. There was a joke.. (and it might have been real) that if someone shipped a package from the 80th floor of the Empire State building to the 25th floor that the package went to Memphis and was delivered overnight back to NY. Of course they have several hubs around the country (and the world) so everything doesn't pass through MEM anymore. The Memphis airport is the busiest CARGO airport in the USA and was the world's busiest for 20 years until recently Hong Kong in China has taken the spot for the last two years. China is just slightly ahead, while no other facility is close.
Wrong on the joke once picked up and brought on to the station it’s sorted anything that belongs to that station is removed and put on the morning sort to go back out.
Just a bit of a semantics thing but: In 2018, Hong Kong had 5,120,811 tonnes versus 4,470,196 tonnes for Memphis. That roughly 700,000 tonne gap is about the same as the gap between Memphis and third place Shanghai-Pudong at 3,768,753 tonnes. Also Hong Kong was (and still has been) busier as a cargo airport since 2010. This is all off of statistics.
You can see that a weather front moved through during this since the winds shifted from west to east in the beginning and then southerly to northerly by the conclusion of the video.
Hey, would you mind if I use some snippets of this video for a documentary I’m making about FedEx? Credit will be given in the video and video description.
Question. Is Memphis only the hub for the heavies (777, MD11, etc) or is there smaller feeder FedEx traffic such as Cessna C.208 Caravan's to the main hub as well. I am a tail number spotter based in the UK and would love to spend time at Memphis. I see a lot of heavies go over my house, as I live under 1 of the main UK-USA airways, but would love to "bag" a few of the smaller feeder FedEx aircraft as well.
From what I can gather they only have feeder flights from Memphis to small communities in the South: Charleston (SC), Evansville, Dothan, Huntsvile etc. There's a lot of 757 traffic I presume (I know they do operate 757s just not sure how big an operation) because they operate to such cities as Allentown, Appleton, Casper, Chattanooga, etc that wouldn't be able to handle a larger aircraft. I think they operate just about anything but the Caravans (you'd have to go to a more regional hub for those, the ones in Memphis are likely ATRs).
Hope this reply doesn't find you too late, but you may absolutely use it! I was a ramp controller for them so if you have any questions regarding the operation, please ask, I'll do my best to reply in a timely fashion.
Let's say that a plane comes in and the pilot tells maintenance that the number 2 engine is running out of normal range. They look into it and discover that the engine needs work. Say, a component swap that takes six hours. How do they get around that? With the amount of flying they do on such a large scale, it is bound to happen. Do they have an empty plane in reserve to swap out? Because if they don't, six hours is enough that you will miss the next sort and the package will not get to its destination by the guaranteed time. Anyone know?
00UncommonSense00 yes they have back up planes they have a plan b,c,d,e for everything. If a plane takes 6 hrs to fix no biggie put p2 and 2nd day packages on it. Once’s it’s finished they it goes. There are late flights all the time during the day with miss outs etc etc. it’s truly amazing how fast you can shipments sent.
Yup. With the number of flights each night, it happens somewhat frequently. If the plane won't make the sort, they will transload to a new jet-- ensuring the packages have the best chance of making it.
Take into consideration that if a plane is damaged in anyway shape or form it costs Fedex $2 million dollars just to put it out of service and get the containers scheduled on another flight
