LONDON – UPS is beginning to experience significant growth as the Christmas e-Commerce boom begins through more flights operated, according to RadarBox.com.

Like with many other cargo carriers, UPS has been experiencing a steady upward climb over the last few years due to COVID-19 and previous e-Commerce booms.

Without further ado, let’s get into the numbers…

The Numbers…

For November 12-19, the carrier operated 676 flights, based on a seven-day rolling average provided by the flight tracking company.

This is an increase of 16.15% compared to the same period last year and exceeds pre-pandemic numbers by a healthy 129 extra flights, which is working well for the carrier.

Below is the last four weeks’ worth of data regarding the carrier’s growth:

What we can see from that data is that the carrier has been exceeding pre-pandemic numbers healthily since last year, but 2022’s numbers have dropped by a couple of percentage points.

However, this has seemed to have recovered exponentially through November 12-19’s data, which definitely represents the increase in e-commerce usage moving forward.

Expansion Continues With More Freighters…

Back in August, the airline announced a deal with Boeing for eight more Boeing 767-300 Freighter aircraft.

This extra eight aircraft will eventually bring UPS’s Boeing 767 Freighter fleet to a total of 108 once the deliveries have been completed.

To go hand in hand with the increase in demand, the International Air Transport Association, or IATA, has estimated that the global air cargo revenue from 2021 alone was more than double what was seen before the Covid pandemic hit.

UPS will begin taking delivery of these new Boeing 767 Freighters in 2025, with an additional 767-300 Boeing Converted Freighters (BCF) joining the carrier’s fleet in late 2023.

Across the world, UPS serves 815 destinations; this is broken down as 400 domestic and 415 international, with a current fleet of 291 aircraft.

Their fleet consists of 52 Airbus A300 Freighters, 13 Boeing 747-400 Freighters, 28 Boeing 747-8 Freighters, 75 Boeing 757 Freighters, 81 Boeing 767 Freighters, and 42 McDonnell Douglas MD-11 Freighters.

The carrier has a further 26 Boeing 767 Freighters on backorder with Boeing, now including this new order for an additional eight.

The carrier uses their Boeing 767 Freighters primarily on domestic U.S. routes and towards Europe; however, UPS does operate them across every continent, so for the most part, they are utilized on medium to long haul services alongside the carriers Boeing 747 Freighters and MD-11 Freighters.

This new order is only eight months since UPS purchased 19 of the same aircraft type back in December 2021, a month before the carrier’s 34th anniversary of operations.

Commenting on their latest order, UPS’ Executive Vice President and President U.S. Nando Cesarone has said, “The additional 767s will help us continue to deliver what matters to UPS customers around the world. This is a very versatile aircraft that we operate across every region of the globe.”

“With these aircraft, our fleet will continue to be among the most modern in our industry, meeting our customers’ needs while improving our efficiency, sustainability, and reliability.”

Adding to Cesarone’s comments, Boeing’s Senior Vice President of Commercial Sales and Marketing, Ihssane Mounir, says, “This repeat order from UPS is a testament to the outstanding cargo capabilities of the 767 Freighter and further demonstrates Boeing’s market leadership in the freighter segment.”

“UPS will operate more than 100 767 Freighters with this order and will build its fleet of Boeing and Boeing-heritage airplanes to more than 260 airplanes. We are honored to play an important role in UPS’s efforts to operate a more sustainable, more efficient fleet.”

It remains clear that as more freighters get delivered, this will enable UPS to expand even further around the globe, and therefore more flights to be operated as the months and years go on.