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Federal Express, the world's biggest all-cargo airline, will boost its Asian operations with two new services next month as part of a plan to improve its coverage in the region.

 From September 1, FedEx will fly a non-stop trans-Pacific service between Osaka, Japan, and Memphis in the United States which the firm said would cut transit times from two days to one.

 Michael Ducker, senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific, also announced that FedEx's long-awaited round-the-world service would start next month.

 'The daily flight originates in Indianapolis and connects Europe to the Middle East and Asia via Paris, Dubai, Bombay, Bangkok and Subic Bay,' he said.

 FedEx is also considering direct flights to Indonesia.

 The new Japan-US daily flight will be the longest in the industry, involving a 12-hour, 11,200-kilometre transit.

 'It is an industry first, a landmark in aviation history,' Mr Ducker said.

 FedEx had carried out modifications to four of the firm's 23 McDonnell MD-11 freighters to enable the aircraft to make the extra-long flight, which had been a year in planning.

 These changes include sleeping quarters and on-board facilities for the additional flight crew that have to be accommodated.

 This meant some of the MD-11's 90-tonne load-carrying capacity had been sacrificed, but Mr Ducker said the aircraft would still be able to carry more than 100,000 pounds.

 The new service means that for the first time FedEx will be able to offer international priority customers in Asia guaranteed delivery by 10.30 am to all cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Mr Ducker confirmed customers using the new flight would not have to pay any additional premium or surcharge on top of existing international priority freight rates.

 The aircraft will start from Penang and fly via Singapore and Osaka to Memphis, the main FedEx hub in the US.

 The new flight would bypass the FedEx hub at Subic Bay in the Philippines, but this had been done for operational and flight-scheduling reasons, Mr Ducker said.

 He was adamant there would be no negative impact on the operations at Subic Bay and that the new flight would improve existing services, especially intra-Asia, FedEx's fastest-growing market.

 'Subic Bay will continue to be the focal point of operations and the central hub. We are introducing later shipment pick-up times in most markets . . . delivered through the FedEx AsiaOne network,' he said.

 This means collection times will be one to three hours later in Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore.



Osaka-Memphis flight cuts transit time to one day from two