Remember a handful of years back when the ground margins were 17-20%+ and were carrying the Express side. Back then Express had like a 4-5% margin and they wanted to be seeing 10%. For 20 years Express has been counting on that postal contract to help keep Express alive. Looks like USPS might be bailing and moving their mail with others. In January our ramp is losing 1 of our two inbound planes and possibly dropping down to the smallest 757 for our outbound. Three years ago out outbound was an MD-11.
What analysists are pointing out is that manufacturing is running back to the US as fast as it can get here ahead of an the long expected Chinese invasion of Taiwan. In fact the the air force is reopening the Tinian Island airfield and it's 8000 foot runways it abandoned shortly after the end of World War II.
The expected result is a significant drop in air freight demand and analysists believe that this is what FDX is preparing for in an effort to hold onto as much of it as possible of what will remain they plan of shifting it onto Ground contractors.
Now for somebody like IWBF and what he believes to be high mileage routes.....15 miles a day (lol).. it might be a real challenge to get his air freight there in time to get on with his ground rides. But, for middle and rural America where 215 miles and up daily routes are still commonplace the question is will contractors out there have to release his ground runs at 8AM then send an air freight truck out at 11AM to run over the exact same area and will FDX pay for that second truck?
Managers at the terminal I was at tell me that they are being told that the 160 mile one way ground trip including a stop to a terminal up north from the international airport will make the ground sort at their terminal in time.....They just rolled their eyes.
