FDX (and maybe UPS?) "Sweeps" - A Question from an Outsider
 

Hi all -

Someone at my company was jumpseating on FedEx and he said the crew told him he was on a flight that would do what was known as sweeps. Staying in the air for about an extra hour in case a plane broke down somewhere at an outstation.

I'd heard a few years ago that FedEx supposedly flew an empty plane across the middle of the country in circles for this reason and that seemed like BS because that's a lot of money for hauling zero cargo. This, however, came right from the crew's mouth and they were on a flight with cargo, just staying up for a little longer. So I suppose it is true after all.

I'm just curious as to how that works. Does each hub (MEM, IND, EWR? OAK?) get a flight like this, or is it just for the area near MEM? And how is it determined when the sweeper flight can land?

Thanks...seems like a thing that is unique to just FedEx.

Don't know about Fed Ex, but UPS used to have airborne "alert" aircraft holding in the low 20's in various locations waiting for somebody to break inbound to the night sort. Once everyone was OPS Normal they'd land. With cheap Jet A, not a bad way to assure service, but today, not so good. I'll bet it was cooked up by some guy who used to fly Chrome Dome or watched "Failsafe" one too many times

UPS did this for years. I think we did 3 sweep flights, one out west, one upper midwest and one southeast. We also used to do cockpit hot.

I would not say we fly empty airplanes specifically to cover contingencies. We do fly underloaded aircraft on circuitous routes to cover contingencies.

Actually it makes a lot of sense…….
We have a flight DEN – MEM that takes almost 4 hours.
Depart DEN heading west, GJT, then south to ABQ, the east to Wink, over to DFW than to MEM. From that route I have recovered 60,000-80,000 of freight from broken air planes or delayed crews, etc. Price out the revenue form that many boxes and it makes sense to use an empty or near empty jet this way.

FedEx "sweep" flights
 

FedEx does have "sweep" flights. As an example, you might leave SEA and fly south down the coast before turning toward MEM. The flight are timed to be over certain parts of the country at certain times to recover freight lost due to a broken aircraft or unanticipated volume. We are usually directed not to takeoff early from our point of origin and asked not to request (or accept) direct legs as this would interfere with the timing of the sweeps location.

As an example, our morning DTW-MEM MD-10 leaves with only about 50,000lbs of cargo (about a third full?). I've been sent DTW-BWI-MEM, and DTW-IAD-MEM to recover cargo due to broken airplanes. We still arrive MEM in time for the daytime sort. Seems like a pretty good system if you ask me.

Also, our "dispatch" (we're supplemental part 121 so it's not a real dispatch per the FAR's) has the ability to see where the aircraft are in flight in real time, how much empty capacity they have and how much gas it will "cost" to divert them to recover cargo.

Does that answer your question?

Mark

UPS hasn't done sweeps in years. I heard about it but it was before my time. We used to do Lear launches, too, which was during my time, but is long gone.

I think great service at any cost just doesn't make sense anymore. That's why they don't do it.

UPS has "hot" crews at maybe five or six airports across the country. There is one in ONT, DFW, RFD, SDF, PHL, and probably a few others. The crews show up, preflight the plane, and then are on a 30 minute launch window for an 8 hour duty period.

I did hot PHX for a year until it went away. It was a pretty good gig. Week on, week off, and you flew twice a week, on average.

Thanks for the replies. They all answer my question.

I'll have to check out a few of those specific flights to MEM on flightaware some morning and see if the route is as some of you described.

Try this one: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/F...305Z/KBIL/KCPR

Fedex Flight 2327 on 8 Dec. We were supposed to go Billings to Memphis but we ended up being "swept" into Casper. The original route is still posted on flight aware.

Once as a Bus Captain we were launching from LAS and were going to MEM as a sweep airplane. Got as far as Tulsa and got acars to go to Austin. Fine. Minute later got another acars message asking how much gas we had and could we make it back over to San Diego. Seems another bus had reverser problems. When checking in with LA center they asked us if we really came from Vegas via half way around the country. Our reply was yes we just wanted to get a look at the country side..........;)