Fedex (Federal Express) is a time-sensitive delivery service which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. Eventually, as management explored ways to enhance customer satisfaction, it was realized that weather delays above nearly all others played a major part in preventing promised overnight arrival of packages and documents (delays in particular due to winter precipitation events as well as early morning fog). In 1985, an in-house meteorology staff (of 8, initially) was formed to provide aviation terminal forecasts and other weather products tailor-made for the company's airline operations. In early 1995, the meteorology office was moved to a new facility off-site of the company's hub operations at Memphis International Airport (the world's busiest night airport), complete with state-of-the-art computer workstations. The weather staff, now consisting of 14, has expanded to cover international weather in cities as far away as Moscow. A brief summary of a FedEx meteorologist's work day (or work night, as it is the most critical time of the company's operations) is planned. The presentation will include several minutes of on-site video
The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology