FedEx does not expect the grounding and inspections of its MD-11F fleet at FedEx Express to cause significant disruption to its daily operations, according to chief financial officer John Dietrich.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently grounded all MD-11 and MD-11F aircraft following the crash of a freighter of the type operated by UPS Airlines. The accident took place close to Louisville International on November 4.

While participating at a Baird Global Industrial Conference in Chicago, Dietrich said that the express delivery and logistics company owns thirty-four MD-11s, of which six are inactive and three are maintained as spares.

“So the operating fleet was 25 airplanes, all of which will be positioned for inspection, which we expect to start occurring in the coming days, working closely with Boeing and the FAA,” Dietrich said.

He added: “Once the aircraft is inspected and released, if it passes that inspection and released, those aircraft will start to get back into the fleet on a one-off, tail-by-tail basis. It’s not like we’re waiting for the whole fleet to be inspected before concluding whether they can safely go back into service.”

Meanwhile, CEO Raj Subramaniam told investors that he met with executives from Boeing to discuss the ongoing investigation and grounding of the McDonnell Douglas trijet. “There’s a deep sense of cooperation, urgency, working with the regulators, to get through this period as quickly as possible,” he said.

According to ch-aviation data, the three operators of the MD-11F are FedEx Express (58 units), UPS Airlines (26), and Western Global Airlines (14). FedEx expected to retire its MD-11F fleet at the end of 2032, the company outlined earlier this year, with plans to retire five aircraft in fiscal year 2027, five in 2028, six in 2029, and seven in 2030.

In addition to the MD-11Fs, the company’s aircraft in-house fleet comprises thirty-eight A300-600Fs, twenty A300-600R(F)s, eighty-five B767-200(SF)s, 148 B767-300Fs, fifty-nine B777-200Fs, and ten MD-10-30(F)s. It also wet-leases one A321-200(P2F), one B737-300(QC), and four B737-800(BCF)s from ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France, and Swiftair.