While many major passenger airlines are trying to return to profitability by shrinking their flight schedules, Federal Express Corp., the pioneer in overnight, coast-to-coast package delivery, aims to become bigger by flying farther faster—faster, in fact, than the speed of sound.
The company is discussing with Air France and British Airways the possibility of leasing two or more of their Concorde supersonic transports. If agreement is reached, Federal Express hopes to begin flying small (under 73 Ibs.) high-priority packages across the Atlantic. According to one plan now under study, the Federal Express Concordes would fly from Washington's Dulles airport to Shannon, Ireland,...