FedEx Express invented express distribution and is the industry’s global leader, providing rapid, reliable, time-definite delivery to more than 220 countries and territories, connecting markets that comprise more than 90 percent of the world’s gross domestic product within one to three business days.

Unmatched air route authorities and transportation infrastructure, combined with leading-edge information technologies, make FedEx Express the world’s largest express transportation company, providing fast and reliable services for more than 3.6 million shipments each business day.

On April 17, 1973, fourteen small French Dassault Falcon planes took to the skies from Memphis International Airport and 186 packages were delivered to 25 U.S. cities along the East Coast: the overnight express industry was born.

Forty years later, our fleet of 660 freighter aircraft along with thousands of FedEx trucks deliver millions of packages and documents to over 220 countries and territories every working day. Today FedEx is providing you with a fully integrated system to ship your packages around the world. In fact, most of the competition has built their business on the hub-and-spoke and track-and-trace models FedEx first introduced.

Our growth, innovation and success over the years is not due to any one contribution but to a great team effort of our 300,000 team members. So here’s to another 40 years – we look forward to continuing building on our success story that first took off from a small airport in Tennessee one memorable evening in spring all those years ago.