page_title: FedEx Express
section_title: Rapid growth
hierarchical_section_title: FedEx Express / History / Rapid growth
context_page_description: FedEx Express, formerly Federal Express, is a cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. In 2017, it was the world's largest airline in terms of freight tons flown and the world's ninth largest in terms of fleet size. It is the namesake and leading subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, delivering freight and packages to more than 375 destinations across all six continents each day.
  Its headquarters are in Memphis with its global "SuperHub" located at Memphis International Airport. In the United States, FedEx Express has a national hub at Indianapolis International Airport. Regional hubs are located at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Oakland International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Piedmont Triad International Airport, and Miami International Airport. International regional hubs are located at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Kansai International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, Cologne Bonn Airport and Liège Airport. There are a total of 12 air hubs in the company's worldwide network. The company slogan is The World On Time.
context_section_description: A 1977 legislative change (Public Law 95-163) removed restrictions on the routes operated by all-cargo airlines, and enabled Federal Express to purchase its first large aircraft: seven Boeing 727-100s. In 1978, the company went public and was listed on The New York Stock Exchange. The following year, it became the first shipping company to use a computer to manage packages when it launched "COSMOS" (Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System), a centralized computer system to manage people, packages, vehicles, and weather scenarios in real time. In 1980, the company implemented "DADS" (Digitally Assisted Dispatch System) to coordinate on-call pickups for customers; this system allows customers to schedule pickups for the same day.
  In 1980, Federal Express began service to a further 90 cities in the United States. The following year, the company introduced its overnight letter to compete with the U.S. Postal Service's Express Mail, and allowed document shipping for the first time. Later in 1981, it started international operations with service to Canada, and officially opened its "SuperHub" at the Memphis International Airport.
  Federal Express' sales topped $1 billion for the first time in 1983. In the same year the company introduced ZapMail, a fax service that guaranteed the delivery of up to five pages in less than two hours for $35. ZapMail would later become a huge failure for the company, costing it hundreds of millions of dollars.
  In the 70's, with the enormous growth, FedEx needed a method for quality control. They developed the tracking number for internal use to find that packages were moving properly. This info was eventually applied to all packages and be made available to the public to find the status of one's own package. In 1986, the company introduced the "SuperTracker", a hand-held bar code scanner which brought parcel tracking to the shipping industry for the first time. Federal Express continued its rapid expansion in the late 1980s, and opened its hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in 1986 and at Indianapolis International Airport and Oakland International Airport in 1988. In 1989, the company acquired Flying Tiger Line to expand its international service, and subsequently opened a hub at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to accommodate this new, expanded service. As the volume of international shipments increased, Federal Express created Clear Electronic Customs Clearance System to expedite regulatory clearance while cargo is en route.
caption: A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 pictured at Narita Airport in 1995, wearing the old Federal Express livery which was used until 1994
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