From the same article....think maybe FedEx productivity just might be enhanced a little bit by the 76 MD 10 change?
All of FedEx's year-over-year profit improvement in Q1 came from the FedEx Express division. That was fairly remarkable because revenue in that segment declined 4% year over year. However, expenses declined by an even greater amount because of lower fuel prices and a variety of efforts to increase operating efficiency, such as updating FedEx's aircraft fleet.
Shipping Airline Fedex Fdx Md
FEDEX IS REPLACING OLDER PLANES WITH MORE EFFICIENT MODELS.
Part of FedEx's recent success has stemmed from its efforts to more tightly manage capacity to match demand. For example, it has cut flights from Asia several times in recent years, instead sending lower-priority shipments in the bellies of passenger airline flights (a shipping method that is somewhat slower but cheaper). FedEx plans to continue this capacity discipline to keep growing its Express division margins.
New pilot contract won't hurt earnings
We think it's a win-win contract. It is in our outlook for not just this year but our strategic outlook [...] where we [...] are expecting to continue to grow our earnings, our cash flows, and our returns. -- FedEx CFO Alan Graf