*Updated July 1, 2025
FedEx was founded in 1971 as an express delivery service. An early motto captures its basic promise: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
The Federal Aviation Act of 1977, which was intensely advocated for by FedEx founding president Fred Smith, allowed FedEx to bring larger aircraft into its fleet. Larger aircraft in turn allowed FedEx to concentrate most of its sorting operations in one hub, Memphis, where the company built its superhub in 1979. Today Memphis is the largest cargo airport in the country, and second in the world, all thanks to FedEx’s massive operation.
While FedEx was founded as an air service, and UPS as a ground service, both FedEx and UPS have air and ground services today, though FedEx still has an edge in the air game, with 741 aircraft it operates as opposed to UPS’s 506. It is the largest cargo airline in the world, serving more than 650 airports around the world and shipping 16 million packages daily.
As with all of our primers, this one has an associated map of FedEx’s Distribution Network, which On the Seams will do its best to keep updated. (Once again, if you have an update to this map, email us at [email protected].)
Express
FedEx traditionally generates between 55-60% of its revenue from Express, about 25% from Ground, 10% from freight, and the remainder from other services.
Speed is the name of the game for Express, so everything in this operation is about getting packages on and off planes as quickly as possible. At many airports (102 by my count), they have Air Freight Centers (AFCs); these are also listed publicly. Employment levels at these AFCs range widely, from 27 in Grand Junction, CO to 643 at JFK. They also have a whole bunch of Ship Centers that are either on airport grounds or just a few blocks away, and I’ve listed these on the map as well. (Note, only the Ship Centers close to airports are on the map. FedEx has many other Ship Centers, the spoke nodes of the Express system, and you can search for them on FedEx’s site.)
Express operates by a hub-and-spoke logic, which the company pioneered, though the spokes typically have their own mini-spokes as well. For instance, a package coming from Grand Forks, North Dakota will first go to Fargo, North Dakota (KFAR), be processed at its Air Freight Center there, and then go on to FedEx’s world hub in Memphis (KMEM), where it’s sorted to its destination.
FedEx Air Hubs (yellow) and Airports served (orange)
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