Originally Posted by C2078

Fedex most definitely does more intra Asian flying. Fedex does not have 428 mainline planes. UPS has close to 290 airplanes. Fedex is an airline that added trucks. UPS is a trucking company that added airplanes. The reason Fedex has a lot more long weekend layovers is because they still fly much of their packages over the weekend. UPS figured out long ago that trucking packages over the weekend was more effective, Fedex probably not too far behind now that they are focusing their attention towards Ground.

Fedex is a great company, UPS is a great company. Fedex places high value in intra Asian flying. UPS on the surface seems less so. Fedex tied their long haul, heavy loads to the Triple, UPS to the 74. When all orders are fulfilled, Fedex will have about 20 more Triples than UPS 74’s. UPS 74’s can carry almost 90,000 lbs more payload than Triple-F, so UPS seems focused on more with less, as opposed to more frequency and less volume for Fedex. Simply different philosophies.

When Fred passes, all bets are off. Fedex, while a publicly traded company, is very much Fred, still. UPS is not one person, and they still value their trucking mentality.

Among this industry, there are many who think Fedex will change when Fred departs. UPS will not change, they will always sweat the assets, view the airline as a “necessary evil”. I also see Fedex being more “business pragmatic” when Fred departs. Fedex treats their pilots like aviation professionals, while UPS treats theirs like truckers. But, UPS pilots knows the knife is coming from the front, prepare accordingly. For the Fedex pilots, the knife seems to be coming from the back while stroking their egos.

Both excellent jobs, simply very different mentalities. Kind of like Air Force vs Marine Core [emoji51].