FedEx Express launches new Liège-Memphis route

The express airfreight carrier division of FedEx Corp. will commence a new freighter service between subsidiary TNT Express’ air hub in Liège, Belgium, to the FedEx World Hub in Memphis, Tenn. in early April 2017, the company said in a statement.    FedEx Express will commence a new flight between subsidiary TNT Express’ air hub in Liège, Belgium, to the FedEx World Hub in Memphis, Tenn., in early April 2017, the company said in a statement.
   The service will operate with Boeing 777 Freighters, which have 116 tons of capacity, and volumes delivered to Memphis will then be delivered across the U.S. and Canada using FedEx’s vast delivery network. From Memphis, the aircraft will continue on a round-the-world flight to Shanghai, China, via Seattle, Wash., and Anchorage, Alaska, before returning to Liège, the airfreight carrier said.
   The new flight will offer two-day transit times for express shipments from Europe to the U.S. and Canada, three-day transit times from key locations in the Middle-East, Africa and India, pre-noon delivery of express parcels, transit times between four and five days for deferred shipments, and increased weight limits for express and deferred shipments.
   “This new flight by FedEx Express is a tangible example of the customer benefits that the acquisition of TNT will bring,” FedEx Express President and CEO David Cunningham said in a statement. “By combining our strengths, particularly the FedEx Express air network and TNT’s strong European road capabilities and Liège hub, we will connect even more people and possibilities.”
   “North America, and the U.S. in particular, is Europe’s major trading partner. The introduction of a direct FedEx Express flight from Liège to Memphis is excellent news for TNT customers shipping to North America,” added David Binks, regional president for Europe at FedEx Express Europe and CEO of TNT. “It also reinforces the role of the TNT hub in Liège as a significant operation for the group, complementing the FedEx Express hubs at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle and Cologne airports.”
   Parent company FedEx Corp., which completed its 4.4 billion euro (U.S. $4.9 billion) purchase of Netherlands-based TNT Express in May 2016, earlier this week reported earnings of $562 million on revenues of $15 billion for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2017, year-over-year increases of 10.8 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively.