UPS reopened its Louisville, Ky. air cargo hub Wednesday night a day after a deadly cargo plane crash forced the company to halt package sorting operations for its morning and afternoon shifts.
The brief suspension of activity at Worldport, the courier’s primary air cargo terminal in the U.S. and largest package-handling facility worldwide, is likely to result in delays for deliveries of domestic and international air shipments.
Located within Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, the 5.2-million-square-foot Worldport campus processes roughly 2 million packages per day and services more than 300 aircraft.
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As part of the reopening, UPS has adjusted the timelines for shipments scheduled for delivery via air Thursday.
Delivery commitment times for its premium early morning shipping services, UPS Next Day Air Early and UPS Worldwide Express Plus, to U.S. customers were extended by 90 minutes.
Times for UPS Next Day Air, UPS Second Day Air A.M., and UPS Worldwide Express services to commercial and residential locations in the U.S., in which delivery is typically complete by noon, will be extended to 11:59 p.m. on the guaranteed day of delivery. All other “time definite” air and international air services will also be extended to 11:59 p.m.
UPS is suspending its money-back guarantee for all packages either shipped from or delivered to the U.S. until further notice.
The company says it has contingency plans in place to help ensure that shipments arrive at their destinations as quickly as conditions permit.
According to data from FlightAware, nine UPS flights departed from Muhammad Ali International Airport by 7 a.m. Thursday. Twenty-seven are scheduled to arrive at the Louisville hub throughout the day.
As of Wednesday night, a second runway at the airport opened back up, meaning two of the hub’s three runways are available for aircraft operations.
“Our goal is to begin returning the network to a normal cadence with flights arriving at destinations on Thursday morning,” said a UPS spokesperson in a statement Wednesday night.
Sourcing Journal reached out to UPS.
The delays are likely to have impacts on other supply chain networks, with Amazon still UPS’ largest customer by volume. Additionally, UPS is the primary air cargo partner of the United States Postal Service (USPS), shipping 85 percent of all airborne mail for the agency in the first quarter, according to a June audit report from the Office of Inspector General.
UPS shut down Worldport’s operations on Tuesday night after its Honolulu-bound MD-11F aircraft crashed during a takeoff attempt, killing at least 12 people, including three flight crew members.
The number of missing people is now nine, said Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg Thursday morning.
A statement from UPS CEO Carol Tomé indicated that the company is working with the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) and local authorities as they investigate the crash. The cause remains undetermined.
The NTSB, which is leading the investigation, determined that an engine on the freighter detached from the left wing during takeoff. Videos of the plane taking off showed one engine on fire before it crashed just beyond the runway.
The plane lifted off and gained enough altitude to clear a fence at the end of the runway, according to NTSB board member Todd Inman during a Wednesday news conference.
“Shortly after clearing that fence, it made impact with structures and the terrain off of airport property,” Inman said. “A post-impact fire ensued, which covers approximately a half of a mile.”
The detached engine was recovered, as well as the plane’s two “black boxes,” the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
Inman told reporters that once the recovered items reached the agency’s investigation lab in D.C., that it “will be able to get a good readout of the applicable data, and that will be yet another point of information that will really help us understand what happened.”
The agency typically issues preliminary reports into major air crashes within 30 days, but it takes 12 to 24 months to complete a full investigation.
As of Dec. 31, 2024, UPS owned and operated 29 Boeing MD-11 planes. The jet that crashed Tuesday was 34 years old, and recently repaired its fuel tank in September.
The MD-11 was grounded at San Antonio International Airport from Sept. 3 through at least Oct. 18 during the repair process, according to flight records.
The last two fatal accidents of an MD-11 occurred in 2009, with the first being a crash landing of a FedEx Express plane at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Two crew members were killed. The second occurred taking off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, resulting in the deaths of three crew members. That plane was operated by now-defunct cargo airline Avient Aviation.
