The age of the trijet is one step closer to finally coming to an end, following confirmation from the United Parcel Service that it has retired its fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighters that had previously been serving it under the UPS Airlines brand. These three-engine widebodies were already on their way out, but the crash of one of them in November has proven to be the last straw, and accelerated their withdrawal from service at UPS.
The news was announced by the United Parcel Service as part of the shipping and logistics giant’s fourth-quarter results, which were shared with the world earlier today. The company’s statement also confirmed that prematurely withdrawing the UPS Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter fleet resulted in a nine-figure after-tax charge. Let’s take a closer look at the decision, the reasons behind it, and what it means on a wider level.
The End Of The Line
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Earlier today, the United Parcel Service shared its fourth-quarter results for the last three months of 2025 with the world, with impressive consolidated revenues of $24.5 billion and a consolidated operating profit of $2.6 billion. However, buried amongst the various facts and figures was also written confirmation of the fact that the fleet of three-engine McDonnell Douglas MD-11 widebody freighters that served UPS Airlines is not coming back.
On this matter, the company specifically explained that, in the fourth quarter of 2025, “UPS accelerated its fleet modernization plans, completing the retirement of its MD-11 fleet during the fourth quarter of 2025.” While these vintage cargo carriers were on their last legs in any case, their withdrawal is conspicuously premature, and has an obvious reason behind it. Their early retirement also resulted in a nine-figure after-tax charge, as UPS notes:
“GAAP results include total charges of $238 million, comprised of a non-cash, after-tax charge of $137 million due to a write-off of the company’s MD-11 aircraft fleet and after-tax transformation charges of $101 million.”
November’s Crash Was The Last Straw
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As detailed in the video below, November 2025 saw UPS Airlines and its veteran fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighters unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight when, shortly after takeoff from the carrier’s hub in Louisville, one of these widebodies crashed to the ground in a nearby estate. It was soon determined that the plane had suffered an engine separation while departing, causing parallels to be drawn to American Airlines flight 191.
22 people on the ground were injured as a result of the crash, and, tragically, all three of the jet’s crew members lost their lives in the accident, as did 12 people on the ground, bringing the total death toll to 15. Questions were quickly raised as to why UPS was still flying such old aircraft, with the accident prompting both it and rival cargo giant FedEx Express to ground their MD-11 fleets. This grounding was then extended into the new year.
Amid this withdrawal, discussions began to be had about whether the MD-11 was done flying for good, and, now, the United Parcel Service has said that this is indeed the case as far as the trijets that had been serving it under the UPS Airlines brand were concerned. According to ch-aviation, the carrier had 26 examples of the MD-11F registered at the time of the type’s retirement (plus 17 historic examples), with a mean age of 31.1 years.
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The World’s Remaining MD-11s
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Present fleet data made available by ch-aviation shows that UPS Airlines was one of three carriers with the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F still in their fleets at the time of the type’s grounding. As previously mentioned, FedEx Express was another example, with the third and final operator being Western Global.
The latter of these had the smallest remaining fleet of McDonnell Douglas’ vintage widebody trijet freighters, with ch-aviation listing just 14 examples of the MD-11F as being registered to Western Global Airlines. Contrastingly, the FedEx MD-11F fleet was more than twice as large as that of UPS, with 58 examples present. Needless to say, all of these aircraft are inactive today, and it remains to be seen whether the other users also retire them.
