The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved protocols set up by Boeing to address safety issues on the MD-11 and MD-11F, allowing them to return to service after being grounded for months.

The regulator grounded all MD-11 and MD-11F jets in November 2025 following a UPS Airlines crash at Louisville International that killed over a dozen people on the plane and on the ground.

In a statement to Bloomberg, the authority said that “after an extensive review, the FAA approved Boeing’s protocol for safely returning MD-11 aeroplanes to service.” Separately, Boeing said it had issued a message to operators with inspection instructions after the FAA gave its nod.

Immediately afterwards, FedEx began resuming use of its MD-11 freighters. The company currently has the largest fleet of MD-11Fs globally, at fifty-eight, and its plan for months has been to restart operations with the type starting with two aircraft in May, while also sending technicians to 16 locations around the world to remove wing-mounted engine pylons from twenty-nine grounded MD-11Fs and ship them back for heavy maintenance at Indianapolis International and Memphis International.

“Over the past several months, our airline safety, engineering, and maintenance teams have conducted rigorous safety inspections, maintenance, and planning to prepare our MD-11 fleet to return to service,” FedEx said in a statement to Bloomberg.

During the grounding, UPS decided to retire the MD-11F type from its fleet (it had twenty-six in operation before the grounding). Western Global Airlines is another significant operator of the type, with fourteen in its fleet, ch-aviation fleets data shows.

Other carriers impacted by the grounding are 10 Tanker Air Carrier (which has four DC-10-30(T)s), Cargo Three (one MD-10-30(F)), Orbis (one MD-10-30(F)), Transportes Aéreos Bolivianos (one MD-10-30(F)), and Omega Air (three DC-10-30(T)s), according to ch-aviation data. A few days after the grounding of the MD-11, the FAA expanded its directive to include all McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft as well.

ch-aviation reached out to Western Global Airlines for comment, but it was not immediately available.