The decision of the FedEx Group, a company specializing in logistics, postal and cargo air services (as well as road trasportation), to merge the Express and Ground units has led to an excess of pilots which has grounded hundreds of workers all over the world, also due to the sharp decline in the demand for air cargo. A worrying turn for a class of professionals long considered one of the most important in the company.

"There are many concerns about FedEx's airline operations and what the future holds", read a letter written in July by Pat DiMento, the airline's vice-president of flight operations, and sent to Express unit crewmembers. In August, the pilots' union had rejected the contractual proposal, defining the wage increases as insufficient. 

In recent months pilots have seen the number of flying hours reduced and some are worried about being fired. The estimated redundancies exceed 700 units out of a total of approximately 5,800 pilots. An exorbitant number of workers that had arrived during the pandemic, when the FedEx company launched a massive recruitment campaign to respond to the boom in demand for air cargo, also fueled by the numerous lockdowns.