Quick Facts
- Date: 1971 (founding year; exact day varies by source)
- Founding Location: Little Rock, Arkansas
- Key Figure: Frederick W. Smith
- Memphis Milestone: Operations launched from Memphis International Airport on April 17, 1973, when 14 aircraft delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities with a team of 389 employees
- Why Memphis: Central U.S. location, favorable weather, airport partnership and available hangar space
Main Story
In 1971, Frederick W. Smith founded Federal Express Corporation, envisioning an integrated air–ground system dedicated to time‑sensitive shipments. While the company’s legal founding and early organization were based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Smith soon aligned the start‑up’s operations with Memphis International Airport. On April 17, 1973, the new carrier’s first night of service launched from Memphis: 14 Dassault Falcon 20 jets carried 186 packages to 25 cities, supported by 389 team members. The choice of Memphis—near the country’s population center with comparatively reliable weather and a willing airport partner—proved decisive for the company and for the Bluff City.
Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, Federal Express (later FedEx) expanded rapidly and opened its super‑hub next to Memphis International Airport in 1981. The model reshaped how high‑value documents and goods moved overnight, and it embedded Memphis in national and global supply chains—an enduring chapter of Memphis history that reaches from Beale Street to runways lit after midnight.
Legacy
Federal Express’s founding—and its 1973 operational launch in Memphis—transformed the local economy. The world headquarters and the Memphis World Hub helped make MEM one of the busiest cargo airports on the planet, including ranking No. 1 globally in 2020 and No. 2 in 2021, according to Airports Council International. The company’s presence has supported thousands of jobs and reinforced Memphis’s identity as a distribution capital of the United States. Today, when people across the globe think of express delivery, they also think of the 901. That linkage continues to shape how the Bluff City competes, grows, and tells its story.
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