Federal Express Airbus A300B

Additional Information:

The Airbus A300 is Airbus’s first production aircraft and the world’s first twin-engine, double-aisle wide-body airliner, developed and manufactured by Airbus from 1971 to 2007.

In September of 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed an initial memorandum of understanding to collaborate to develop an innovative large airliner. West Germany and France reached a firm agreement on 29 May 1969, after the British withdrew from the project on 10 April 1969. The pan-European collaborative aerospace manufacturer Airbus Industrie was formally created on 18 December 1970 to develop and produce the aircraft and the A300 prototype first flew on October 28, 1972.

During the 1990s, the A300 became popular with cargo aircraft operators, as both passenger airliner conversions and as original builds. Production of the A300 ceased in July of 2007 after 561 aircraft were eventually delivered.

Federal Express is a cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee which first commenced operations in 1973. The carrier operates a “super hub” for cargo at its home base of Memphis. Federal Express began serving Albuquerque from Memphis later in the 1970’s using small Dassault Falcon 20 jet aircraft. Federal Express adopted the nickname “FedEx” and officially took on that name in 1994. The company grew quickly specializing in overnight package delivery and obtained larger aircraft including Boeing 727’s and 737’s and later acquired even larger wide body aircraft. FedEx now serves Albuquerque with morning and evening flights each day to Memphis using wide body Airbus A300 and Douglas DC-10 aircraft.

Federal Express began service to the Albuquerque Sunport on September 4, 1995 using the Airbus A300B N417FE. The A300B was based in Albuquerque and each evening would fly out to the Memphis hub.

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