UPS will take delivery of three MD-11Fs within the next year or so, according to the company’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 20. UPS had a firm commitment to purchase five of the aircraft type at the end of 2019, according to the report, all of which were to be delivered between 2020 and 2021.
UPS paid the full purchase price for the aircraft in December and, since then, has already received two MD-11Fs from Lufthansa Cargo; it will have a fleet of thirty-nine once those two complete their maintenance. Although UPS couldn’t confirm the source of the three remaining MD-11Fs to be delivered, Cargo Facts believes they will also come from the German carrier, which decided in November 2019 to accelerate the retirement of its MD-11Fs and have them all withdrawn by the end of 2020.
According to a recent article on German aviation website aero.de, Lufthansa Cargo is contemplating retiring the entire MD-11F fleet this summer. The carrier currently has seven left, but one (48801) landed back in Frankfurt (FRA) on its last commercial flight on Feb. 13 and should soon be ferried to Victorville (VCV).
The two ex-Lufthansa aircraft (48805 and 48806) acquired by UPS were sent to VCV in the last quarter of 2019, but were then brought to San Antonio (SAT) in January for modification work to bring them in line with the rest of the fleet.
FedEx Express has also picked up three of Lufthansa Cargo’s retired MD-11Fs (48785, 48798 and 48802). Unit 48802 was removed from service in December, ferried to VCV on Feb. 11, and registered to FedEx on Feb. 24, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s registry.
