UPS $1Bil project

[Ready2Fly]

I know that FedEx lost it's shorts when they first started to fly in Europe, but UPS has been profitable there from day one, probably using FedEx's problems their as a guide of what not to do.

 

[Ready2Fly]

How many billion did FedEx and UPS lose trying to open international markets? I don't remember the exact number, but it was a bunch. Fortunately, both had enough domestic revenue to keep them alive while they sorted out the problems in their International operations.

DHL is in a similar position now. They're making enough money off of their International ops to carry them through some hard times here. The spectre of impending labor problems at their 2 major competitors (Fed Ex and UPS) only serves to help them increase market share here. Nobody wants to give either UPS or FedEx all of their business with the possibility of a strike looming in the near future.

I wouldn't count DHL out as a major player in the overnight express business.

Now, it they'd only hire some REAL employees...

You mean all the illegals working the sort aren't real people?

 

[Whistlin' Dan]

I know that FedEx lost it's shorts when they first started to fly in Europe, but UPS has been profitable there from day one, probably using FedEx's problems their as a guide of what not to do.

It's almost impossible to determine where a company that does business internationally makes money, and where they don't. I'm no MBA, but I've taken enough business and accounting courses to know that there are a million ways to make a company appear profitable when it's not (ala Enron) and ways to make it look like a stinker, when in fact it's making money hand-over-fist (ala DHL's domestic operations. Remember their IRS problems a few years ago?).

The problem with working for DHL long-term is that they detest employees in general, and unions in particular. Hence, the spin-off of ASTAR and ABX. Not that UPS and FedEx didn't have something to say about that, but by making "their" in-house airline basically just another ACMI carrier, it gave them a tremendous advantage in keeping their labor costs down. If I live to be a thousand, I will never understand why "Brown" and "Purple" pushed the issue of "foreign ownership," especially when it was such a losing argument to begin with. That is, of course, unless they plan to spin their own airline ops off at some time in the near future, citing the "competitive advantage" of DHL's operation.

The only "universal truth" I see to working for ANY airline right now, is that by the time you get hired by whatever one is currently at the top of the "A" list, it's Golden Age" has already passed and you're working for a company in decline. It's like playing "Whack-a-Mole" with your career, I tell ya...

BOP! Continental! BOP! Flying Tigers! BOP! American! BOP! United! BOP! Delta! BOP! JetBlue! BOP! FedEx! BOP! UPS!

BOP! ...??????