UPS Plans to Hire 300 Pilots to Support Postal Service Contract

UPS also gave buyout packages last year to 193 of the most senior pilots to reduce costs amid a downturn in the parcel market.

Spokeswoman Michelle Polk confirmed UPS is recruiting 170 pilots, as currently posted on its external job boards.

The hiring number provided by the union covers the number of pilots UPS is likely to hire over the next year or so. A source familiar with pilot scheduling and staffing said UPS has to phase in new pilots because there isn’t enough capacity to train a full cohort at once.

Postal flights are primarily operated during the daytime, opposite the express overnight network.

The Postal Service has prioritized moving mail by ground as much as possible over the past three years, resulting in a $500 million reduction in revenues for FedEx during that time. FedEx realized $1.6 million in revenue during fiscal year 2023 from its air contract with the mail agency, according to research by David Hendel, a transportation attorney at Culhane Meadows.

UPS has about 292 freighters in its mainline fleet, which is 43% smaller than FedEx’s. FedEx also has about 2,400 more pilots than UPS.

There is no indication that UPS will slow the phase out of its aging MD-11 fleet. The company last year retired six of the aircraft and plans to remove more than that amount this year. The MD-11s are being replaced by 767 freighters. UPS has 21 more 767s on order from Boeing.

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared on FreightWaves.