This question is for my UPS brothers and sisters.

With such an excellent balance sheet, why hasn't UPS been more proactive/aggressive in seeking out B747-400, 747-8, or 777 freighters? The available Md-11's are few, and hardly any -400 passengers will be converted what with the A380 delay.

The A380 delay had to have hurt your long term ability to move pallets out of Asia, and I don't think your 8 or 10 -400's coming will be enough.

So...just what is UPS's long term fleet vision?

that would be more managment pilots, after all it's more important to have them than lift

They are going to start taking delivery of new 747-400s in 2007 and have a total of 8-12 on order with more to follow. Still getting MD-11s converted and will end up with about 30.
My guess is they will dump the Airbus 380 and say they are getting more 747s and or 777s within a short time.

Well, that is the way UPS has and probably always will do business. Just look at their hiring. Run the airline behind the hiring curve without proper staffing, then sign a new contract and fall even more behind in hiring. Now they say they will go balls to the wall in hiring for the next year. And that hiring will hardly cover retirements and new aircraft. Long term future planning is not one of their strong points.

Just a note: We buy all of our planes with cash, so i've been told. Does that make a difference? i.e. maybe boeing doesn't give certain incentives without leases. Just a thought

It's interesting to watch how completely different the two managements are. Seems like UPS suffers Paralysis from Analysis at times. Don't get me wrong, our management has its faults too. But I really believe that your fleet vision is severely lacking.

UPS hiring is fractured as well. From what I hear in Anchorage from my Brown friends, you guys are 200 to 400 pilots short right now. How will you staff what you currently have, plus the new airframes coming next year?

Not trying to pick a fight with my questions, I'm just trying to understand your company a little bit better.

Sasquatch

YGTBSM! No more brown kool aide (with nuts and corn) for you!

UPS's Fleet vision?? Why would they need more lift with plans to furlough

They are convinced that not buying bilions of dollars of airplanes is what keeps that balance sheet so healthy.

The lack of hiring was to teach us some sort of a lesson during negotiations and it looks like that dam is bursting now. What lesson we learned is beyond me.

They've never been known for their forward thinking, but somehow they muccle through despite themselves

I've been at UPS for about 2 years now and still can't quite figure out the strategery. Maybe it's too much diversity happy talk infecting their brains. The more diverse the fleet the better! UPS...you can't spell stupid without it.

Maybe they're going to pick up the A380s Fed Ex cancelled in a shrewd bid to chisel Airbus on their ailing program for some cheap lift.

As long as we're guessing and speculating...there are now only 15 remaining freighter orders. Ten from UPS and five from International Finance Lease Corp.

I'm no CFO but if I were building an airplane that needed 420 units to break-even (up from the original estimate of 270) and I only had 142 orders on the books remaining (down from 159), I don't know if I'd want to commit my company to the additional expenditure of tooling up for 15 units of another type (the freighter) of what is already a loss generating product.

Tipsy