I've read a lot of speculation regarding the DHL freight, additional airframes (be it DC-8's from the desert or new airframes) and hiring.

My question for discussion is whether UPS could better utilize the current fleet by adding a third sort out of SDF at least, and maybe all hubs. This would maximize utilization of the current fleet, and still present a need for hiring without additional airframes. Thoughts? Are we going to see a third sort at SDF?

How many sorts does FDX do out of MEM each business day?

Rott

If the day sort crew is sleeping in the hotel at night and the night sort crew is sleeping in the hotel during the day...where is the crew that's flying the 3rd sort?

EDPM

Seems like every logbook I ever get my hands on shows the bird flyin' like a MoFo. I understand that time slows down when they are moving at Mach .85, but not enough to fit a 25th hour in the day...

The tails seem well utilized, but I'm sure some do sit around without being maintained.

I spoke to one the chief pilots and he said there was a meeting last friday to discuss establishing twlight sort in the event of dhl deal gets signed so they can utilize our current fleet until we can get more airframes.

Here comes RSVD in SDF!

Well, right now they're in the pool.

Seriously, though, looking at the bid packages for all airplanes, UPS has a wide variety of crew utilization lines. Most lines start at an outstation on Monday night and end end up at an outstation on Saturday morning with hub turns all week. But there are morning turns and afternoon turns out of SDF. Afternoon turns that start at an outstation (like DFW), fly into SDF, sit for 6 hours and fly back to the outstation. There are lots of non-hub flying. LAX-MCO. SJC-CAE. MCO-BOS. EWR-DSM. BOS-DFW. DFW-EWR. and on, and on.... My point is that crew planning could easily create the lines for a third sort.

Rott

Sorry, IMO, the airplanes are not well utilized. Domestically, the airplanes sit far more hours per day than at PAX carriers.

Rott

Internationally, the planes are like the pony express. Land, swap crews and cargo-go. Repeat. They are airborne forever.
Domestic- The way to make the most money is load them to the hilt allowing domestic customers late drop off times. Minimize to no ferry time. Then fly as little as possible, save jets to be used 20 years longer than pax jet <g>, less mainteneance, fuel, etc. Make 10X in one leg what pax jets make in 12 hours of flying pax. Airplanes utilized very well for current business model. Optimized I think for best yield. Any extra flying would need to be supported by revenue. It isn't right now. We only exist to move whatever UPS cannot move by trucks and trains to meet customer delivery times. The airplanes domestically are extremely well utilized.

If DHL wants the same early delivery and late pick up that we do, a third sort won't be of much use to them...

A lot of the 2DA freight is carried during the NDA flights. If DHL has enought NDA freight, the excess 2DA freight will need to be carried sometime. ie, a third sort.