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I have a shipment from Canada to South America coming, and it's curious that the "priority" FedEx option takes 6 days to arrive, when there are daily flights between the two destinations.

So I'm assuming mail does not go in airliners.

Am I right, and if so, what's the reason for that? It seems it would be extremely more efficient at least for small shipments.

Guido
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  • Companys like FedEx are having their own aircraft, so why would you occupy space in a cargo room in a civilian aircraft which would normally be reserved for passenger cargo – Hugo Woesthuis Mar 05 '17 at 19:42
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    Just to clarify: "civilian aircraft"? As opposed to a military or government aircraft? I assume you mean "an airliner"? But, if you're contracting FedEx to make the delivery, they're going to fly it on their own routes, not whatever "daily flight" you're looking at in the airline world. FedEx is going to move it to their closest hub, and then possibly another hub (or even two) prior to delivery to the destination city. – Jimmy Mar 05 '17 at 20:07
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    @HugoWoesthuis Actually, both the USPS and FedEx make use of passenger aircraft for mail and cargo for the simple reason that it's a source of revenue for the the airline. See http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/air-freight1.htm. Also, back before my retirement in 1999, you could bring packages to the airline I worked for to be put on a particular flight and then held for pick up at the destination. I don't know if this practice was continued after 9-11-2001. – Terry Mar 05 '17 at 20:39
  • I did mean airliner, looking really stupid now :) – Guido Mar 05 '17 at 20:39
  • @Terry thanks for the tip (didn't know it) – Hugo Woesthuis Mar 06 '17 at 10:28

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So I'm assuming mail does not go in civilian aircraft.

Like many thing in aviation it depends. For shipping it will depend on where you are shipping to and from, how big the item is and the chose method of shipment. Both FedEx and UPS (who are private shipping carriers) operate large fleets of cargo airplanes. In many cases a shipment may end up on one of their own cargo planes. However their planes, like passenger planes run routes that may be pre-decided. As such passenger airlines sell the leftover cargo space to anyone willing to buy it. You can find a nice blog post on how it works here. UPS/FedEx may pre-broker a deal to buy a certain amount of cargo space per year from an airline to obtain a better rate or they may buy it on demand as needed.

Now Air Mail is a bit different as its offered (here in the US) by the government postal service. Technically the USPS no longer offer airmail service as it was once called but does still offer domestic and foreign guaranteed time shipping. All of these items are moved in cargo space on Commercial Passenger Planes or by under contract by FedEx as the USPS no longer operates any aircraft.

Am I right, and if so, what's the reason for that? It seems it would be extremely more efficient at least for small shipments.

Like most things in aviation low cost will always beat out marginal efficiency. If FedEx can ship a package at a significantly reduced rate but in turn it will take an extra day or two to arrive than many customers will see a value add in that. In the same vein it would be very efficient to fly every passenger in a small plane to an airport closer to their final destination and have the plane depart when the passenger needs to, however the cost of that simply would never work out.

Dave
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  • "The U.S. Postal Service alone leases space on 15,000 of the approximately 25,000 scheduled passenger flights each day. Commercial airlines make about 5 to 10 percent of their revenue from hauling freight." ... would have saved a heck of a lot of typing :p – BugHunterUK Apr 03 '19 at 15:44
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FedEx and other express shippers likely have contracts with commercial carriers. The six day shipping time tells me that they could only secure reliable, affordable rates with a 6D service level. Sure, you could probably 2-day it but the costs to FedEx will probably push the price you pay through the roof. Would you pay 3x to 4x what you paid for your six day service for a two day service?

acpilot
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    Also, don't forget customs processing. This takes easily two more days. – Peter Kämpf Mar 05 '17 at 20:23
  • I have had an item arrive in 2 days from the US to the UK. I didn't pay the shipping but shipping costs was in the hundreds for a pretty small replacement for one of our IBM servers. No idea how it got through customs so fast, maybe they have priority customs checks for such customers? But saying that I've had chocolates and perishables sent from US to UK and they always arrive, which means nobody has checked the contents or ran it through an xray machine. – BugHunterUK Apr 03 '19 at 15:47
  • Freight shippers have mechanisms in place to speed the customs process along. Your shipment was probably place on a pallet of parcels simply because the guy packing it had space and your package was within reach. That pallet was expedited through customs on a higher service level and your box got delivered early. When I flew express Next-Day, we would routinely load the plane with 2 day and 3 day once the Next-Day stuff was on board. – acpilot Apr 03 '19 at 15:53