UPS’s hub at Louisville Muhammed Ali International Airport (SDF) now has more daily flights and tonnage capacity than any other express air cargo hub in the world.
In fact, UPS Worldport’s hub at SDF has taken over the number one hub position from FedEx’s Memphis International (MEM) hub, found the “Global Cargo Hub Review” report by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University in Chicago.
“In every scenario for flight activity and available tonnage capacity we considered, the Louisville hub is now larger than Memphis,” said the report.
Joseph Schwieterman, lead author of the report, said: “In conversations about express air cargo hubs, people often immediately think of FedEx’s Memphis hub, but UPS’s Louisville hub has elbowed its way to the top.”
He added that the UPS hub “has been a stalwart amid the swirling uncertainty about tariffs and changing logistics practices in favour of truck transport”.
The report attributed the shift to changes in demand, diminished afternoon flight activity at FedEx’s Memphis hub, a general shift by air cargo integrators toward ground transport and UPS’s investment in Worldport.
The report found that FedEx has reduced daytime flying to a much greater extent than UPS and an increasing share of its departures occur at night.
“UPS’s average of 202.3 peak-day flights at Louisville exceeds FedEx’s superhub, with 164.7, by around 40 flights. The Louisville hub’s activity exceeded Memphis’s by more than 20 flights on days unaffected by severe weather.”
Going into more detail about FedEx’s flight activity, the report’s authors stressed that “afternoon departures have fallen by 66.3 flights (60.3%) since our September 2022 sample, while nighttime (midnight to 5:59 am) departures fell by just 30.5%. In comparison, UPS’s afternoon departure bank has at SDF has diminished only slightly”.
The report further stated that FedEx’s decline in daytime flying at MEM is part of an effort to improve payload utilisation and appears to be related to the “FedEx 2.0” initiative to streamline operations and merge ground and express air into a single integrated delivery system.
SDF also outpaces MEM in off-peak and cumulative weekly flying.
Meanwhile, FedEx’s Liege hub, DHL’s Leipzig hub and SF Airlines’ Ezhou hub in China rank third through fifth, respectively, with more than 45 departures each, while FedEx’s Paris was close behind.
Additionally, UPS’s Louisville hub now has 33.4% more tonnage capacity and 33% more volume capacity than FedEx on peak days, according to the review. Leipzig and Ezhou rank 3rd and 4th, respectively.
MEM retains reach
However, despite the drop in daytime flying, FedEx’s MEM hub still serves more airports nonstop than any other hub in the world, found the report.
FedEx’s MEM hub still serves the greatest number of destinations on a typical peak day: 116 vs. 98 at SDF, research showed.
The former’s greater geographic reach is partly because it tends to operate fewer multiple flights to the same destination.
The hub at MEM also has the greatest number of nighttime departures before 6am – 82 vs. 69 at UPS’s SDF hub.
In addition, FedEx still has three of the world’s six largest express air cargo hubs.
As well as changes to key US hubs, express air cargo parcel delivery hubs in China are growing.
Both Europe and China now have hubs that are larger than any of the US’s, besides the Louisville and Memphis superhubs.
SF Airlines and China Postal Service, in particular, are successfully replicating the Western Hemisphere hub models, said the authors of the report.
SF Airlines has grown to 50 flights at Ezhou Huahu International Airport (EHU). The airline also operates sizeable hubs at Beijing, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.
China Postal Express also has a hub in Nanjing and Japan’s Kansai International Airport runs a hub with significant activity from SF Airlines and Shandong Airlines.
That said, China goes against the grain somewhat. The world’s 12 largest express air cargo hubs are all operated by FedEx, UPS, SF Airlines, DHL, and their strategic partners, and all are north of the equator.
Similar hubs have not yet emerged in Africa, India, South America, or other regions.
Source: https://www.aircargonews.net/cargo-airport/2026/02/ups-overtakes-fedex-to-become-worlds-largest-express-air-cargo-hub
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