FedEx Q1 FY14 Earnings Call
A. Mickey Foster
VP - Investor Relations, FedEx Corp.
Good morning, and welcome to FedEx Corporation's first-quarter earnings conference call. The first-quarter earnings release and our stat book are on our website at fedex.com. This call is being broadcast from our website, and the replay and podcast will be available for about one year. Joining us on the call today are members of the media. During our question-and-answer session, callers will be limited to one question in order to allow us to accommodate all those who would like to participate. If you're listening to the call through our live webcast, feel free to submit your question via email or as a message on StockTwits.com. For email, please include your full name and contact information with your question and send it to ir@fedex.com address. To send a question via StockTwits.com, please be sure to include $FDX in the message. Preference will be given to inquiries of a long-term strategic nature.
I want to remind all listeners that FedEx Corporation desires to take advantage of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Certain statements in this conference call may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For additional information on these factors, please refer to our press releases and filings with the SEC. To the extent we disclose any non-GAAP financial measures on this call, please refer to the Investor Relations portion of our website at fedex.com for a reconciliation of such measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures.
Joining us on the call today are Fred Smith, Alan Graf, Mike Glenn, Chris Richards, Rob Carter, Dave Bronczek, Henry Maier, and Bill Logue. And now our Chairman, Fred Smith, will share his views on the quarter.
Frederick W. Smith
Chairman, President & CEO, FedEx Corp.
Thank you, Mickey. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our discussion of operating and financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2014. FedEx had a good quarter despite higher fuel cost and one fewer operating day. Growth in overall customer demand for our wide range of global transportation solutions drove improved earnings. FedEx Ground reported another outstanding quarter, as average daily volume grew 11%.
FedEx Express is skillfully executing its profit improvement plans. As part of this, earlier this month, FedEx Express took delivery of its first new Boeing 767-300 freighter, which uses about 30% less fuel and offers at least a 20% operating cost over the MD-10 it replaces. We are reaffirming our forecast for full-year's earnings per share growth of 7% to 13% over FY13's adjusted results. We believe FedEx is well-positioned for continued growth and success as customers around the world realize the full value of our portfolio of solutions.
Now, I'll turn the call over to Mike Glenn for his views on the economy, and then to Alan Graf for details on the financial results. Mike?
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
Thank you, Fred. The FedEx economic forecast calls for continued moderate growth in the global economy. Our U.S. GDP growth forecast is 1.6% for calendar year '13, which is down 0.4 points versus last quarter, and 2.5% for calendar '14, which represents no change versus the last quarter. For industrial production, we expect growth of 2.4% in calendar '13, again, down 0.4 points versus last quarter, and 3.4% in calendar '14, which is down 0.1 points versus last quarter. It's important to note that historical data revisions account for most of the reduction in the calendar year '13 growth rates. Policy risks remain high, but there's signs of improvement in Europe and China. Our global GDP growth forecast is 2% for calendar '13, down 0.3 points versus last quarter, and 2.9% for calendar '14, down 0.1 points versus last quarter.
Turning to yield per package, in the Domestic Express segment, excluding the impact of fuel, year-over-year package yield increased 2.7%. The increase was primarily driven by rate and discount improvements, followed by increased weight per package and product mix. The Ground package yield increased 2.2% excluding the impact of fuel. The year-over-year increase was driven by rate and discount improvements and increase in extra services charges and product mix. In the International Express segment, Export, excluding fuel, International Export Express package yield declined 2.1% year over year due to changes to rate and discount in weight. And finally, in the Freight segment, or the LTL segment, excluding the impact of fuel, yield-per-hundred-weight increased 1.1% year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by rate and discount changes and shipment class.
Now, I'll turn it over to Alan Graf.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. We had a good quarter. Revenues and earnings increased, driven by the solid performances in all of our transportation segments. Operating income grew 7% year-over-year, primarily from improved profitability at Express, higher volumes and increased yields at Ground, and improved performance at Freight. Our margin improved 30 basis points versus last year to 7.2%, despite significant headwinds from the fuel surcharge timing lag as well as one fewer operating day. Offsetting those headwinds for the quarter were benefits from lower aircraft maintenance and salaries and wages expense. For Express, quarter-one operating income grew 14%, and operating margin improved 50 basis points year-over-year despite the significant negative impact of net fuel and one fewer operating day. The improvement was driven by stronger U.S. based business performance, lower pension expense, and the continued modernization of the Company's aircraft fleet, which helped to drive maintenance costs lower. These were partially offset by higher related depreciation expense.
Turning to Ground, operating income grew 5% year-over-year despite the negative impact of fuel. Higher network expansion costs were also incurred as we continue to invest heavily in the growing Ground and SmartPost businesses at very high ROIC. The improvement in Ground was driven by higher volumes, despite one fewer operating day, and higher revenue per package. Freight's operating income increased slightly despite one fewer operating day year-over-year. Higher weight per shipment, LTL yields, and average daily LTL shipments improved income at Freight. Freight continued to optimize the linehaul network by increasing the utilization of lower-cost rail over the quarter, now at 17% of total linehaul miles.
As for the outlook, based on the economic conditions that Mike talked about, we reaffirm our FY14 earnings per share growth of 7% to 13% from the FY13 adjusted results. Our outlook depends on stable fuel prices. Fuel price volatility impacts the timing of our fuel surcharge levels in relation to fuel expense, and ultimately, demand for our services. As part of our profit improvement program, we are continuing to evaluate further cost reduction actions to continue to improve our results at Express and to ensure that we achieve our $1.6 billion profit improvement goal at Express by the end of FY16. With regard to the voluntary buyout program, as of August 31st, approximately 45% of the 3,600 employees that accepted the voluntary buyout have vacated their positions. The additional 55% will depart throughout the remainder of FY14, with approximately 25% remaining until May 31, 2014. Total SG&A savings from our profit improvement program is expected to be $600 million by the end -- on an annual basis by the end of FY16. Now, we'll open up the call for questions.
Operator (Operator Instructions)
Justin Yagerman
Analyst, Deutsche Bank
Wanted to ask about the capacity side in the International Express business. Obviously, margin is a lot better than expected on the Express side this quarter. And I know that's due to a lot of what you've got going on that on the Domestic side as well, but wanted to dig in and see how the progress has been going in terms of the third-party linehaul initiative and where you guys are at in terms of frequencies on Export flights out of Asia?
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Thanks, Justin. This is Dave Bronczek. You're right. We adjusted for the second quarter in a row now, last quarter in April and this quarter in July. We reduced some of our global capacity coming out of Asia, which you saw in some of our numbers in terms of fuel usage and fuel in general. That being said, our International Economy volume continues to grow at a rapid rate. It was up 15%. I think it's been in the teens now for several quarters in a row. So we're actually putting those packages in that network into the right system form now that is actually benefiting us across the world. Thank you for the question.
Operator
Dave Ross, Stifel Investments.
Bruce Chan
Analyst, Stifel Nicolaus
It's actually Bruce Chan on for David Ross. I'm just curious, on the Trade Networks side, we've heard from some of the other forwarders out there that trans-pac volumes have been kind of blah with soft summer volumes and limited optimism for 2014. I'm wondering if your outlook is the same, or if you're expecting something a little bit rosier, and if rosier, is that because you're taking share, whether price related or product offering related? Thank you.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Thank you very much. This is Dave again. We're toggling our traffic back and forth between Express and FTN, so FTN is performing very well. I think the volumes are slightly higher; the yields are a little bit weaker. I think that's the case across the world, but it's performing exactly like we had planned it to, so our FTN organization is doing a terrific job of great service and moving the lower-yielding International Economy into their network.
Operator
Ben Hartford, Baird.
Ben Hartford
Analyst, Robert W. Baird & Co.
If we could just tie that all together, could you give us a sense, Dave, maybe where you believe the network is? Is it in relation to needing to divert lower-yielding freight off of your aircraft into third-party capacity? Do you feel like that you've gotten out in front of this trade-down phenomenon that's been discussed a lot? Do you still feel like that there's incremental progress to be made in terms of putting the lower-yielding packages onto the appropriate modes? Can you provide some perspective there?
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Yes, that's a great question. We feel very good about where we are. We have not affected service whatsoever. We have the world-class service around the globe. We've adjusted the capacity moving the right traffic in the right network. We have more upside opportunity to keep growing our International Economy more financially favorably now, whereas in the past, we used to cap that traffic. So we have a great network now for International Priority. All around the world, we have more upside there. We have more upside in International Economy as well. It's been a terrific shift for us to match what's happening in the global economy.
Operator
Christian Wetherbee, Citi.
Seth Lowry
Analyst, Citigroup
This is Seth in for Chris. My question pertains to Ground margin. Wondering if you could give us a sense of some of the individual headwinds that you faced during the quarter, the higher network expansion costs, fuel surcharge, and one less operating day, and what those effects were on margin?
Henry J. Maier
President & CEO FedEx Ground
This is Henry Maier. Virtually all of the year-over-year change in margin was due to fuel. And as Alan pointed out, op income was impacted by fuel and one less operating day. Network expansion costs at this point in time are really for capacity and part of our anticipation of peak build-up.
Operator
Scott Group, Wolfe Research.
Scott Group
Analyst, Wolfe Research
Thanks. So Alan, question for you on the SG&A. I think you mentioned you're now expecting $600 million of savings. I just want to make sure I'm understanding it right. Is that comparable with the $500 million you initially laid out at the Analyst Day over a year ago? And then can you give some color on when we should expect to see that? When I look at labor savings this quarter and I back out pension, you don't really see any signs of the headcount reductions. And is that a timing issue, or are there any offsets there we should think about? Thank you.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
All right, Scott. You asked several questions in there, so let me do my best. First, on the technical one, we made acquisitions last year that are year-over-year, and so you're seeing some of that -- on your last question, that's what you're seeing there. Yes, the $600 million is comparable to the $500 million. We are actually well ahead of our cost goals that we outlined 11 months ago, and I feel very comfortable about where we are on the cost side, and we'll continue to work that hard. We have great productivity improvement programs going on in other places as well, aside from labor. Notably, AOD productivity, and you're seeing that in our maintenance expense at Express. We have some additional opportunities in strategic sourcing that we're going to be tackling that I think are going to help us reach our goal.
Now having said that, to your strategic question, the world looks a lot different today than it did 11 months ago when we gave you the very specific five buckets about how we were going to improve at Express. So after you listen to what Mike said about '13 and '14's economic outlook, I think that we're going to have a little bit more pressure on our base erosion at Express that we got to, as Dave talked about, match lift-to-load, if you will, so we're aggressively doing that. That may mean that we may have to get to the $1.6 billion a little bit differently than what we described to you. And it may mean that we will be more backend loaded towards the second half of '15 and '16 as we start really driving the leverage of the things that we're doing. But we're committed to the $1.6 billion, and we'll have that by the end of FY16, and I feel comfortable about saying that in today's environment.
Operator
Ken Hoexter, Bank of America.
Ken Hoexter
Analyst, BofA Merrill Lynch
Great. Good morning. Just following on the international side, I just want to understand on the trade-down effect, are you taking further steps, and to Alan's point there, are you now looking at -- get some of those cost savings internationally? I think you talked originally maybe moving some of these cost programs into the international bucket, and have you started to look at that on the cost side?
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Well, Ken, I thank you for the question because again, I want to stress that as a strategy from FedEx Corporation, we are embracing International Economy, and we like these growth rates. And we believe very strongly that we can make the shift that the customers are making while still growing the premium service at IP. It'll just be at a slower growth rate than we had anticipated 11 months ago. But the IE network is coming into place very nicely, and we're going to continue to work on that. And I feel pretty comfortable that we'll make this strategic change. I'll let Dave give you some more detail.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Yes, that's right, Alan. You saw in the numbers, our flight hours were down significantly and our fuel usage was down significantly, and that's on our own backbone network. As we expand our International Economy traffic into other networks, that's actually a very positive thing for us on both sides of the financial equation for Express. So we are embracing the economy service. And those traffic cohorts, there's a lot more upside there. We've capped it in the past.
Operator
Brandon Oglenski, Barclays.
Brandon Oglenski
Analyst, Barclays Capital
Thanks for taking my question. I want to focus for a third question here on costs. So for the first time, we actually saw Express quarterly costs, ex-fuel, come down, although slightly. Should we expect that to accelerate throughout fiscal '14 and into '15? And Alan, are those cost cuts just becoming a little bit more challenging to derive? Is that why you're saying it might be a little bit more backend loaded to achieve that 75% of $1.6 billion next year?
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Well again, I'll start. Again, acquisitions that are now fully in our P&L are masking what we're doing in terms of bending our costs down. And I think I also mentioned to you about we still have over half the people that were still working here through the first quarter from our voluntary buyout program, which a year from now will be -- they'll all be -- have left, and we will be able to see a much bigger number from it at Express directly and from the chargeback that Express gets from Services. So I think that's the macro answer to your question. Dave has a lot of specific productivity things going on. I'll turn it over to him.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
We've hardened all of our expense programs. They're all working exactly what we would like them to work -- how we'd like them to work. It's what we've told you. In fact, it was the question before. It's actually all around the world on our expense targets and performance there. So with the exception of acquisitions that have added a layer of expense -- and revenue, quite frankly -- and without the impact of fuel this quarter that was significant for Express, our margins -- our operating profit improving 14% is right in line with what we've planned to achieve and are achieving.
Operator
Thomas Kim, Goldman Sachs.
Thomas Kim
Analyst, Goldman Sachs
Thanks very much. We noticed that the cash flows continue to build up nicely, and you're now looking at about $5 billion in the quarter. Could you give us a little bit of guidance as to how we should be thinking about capital allocation with regard to perhaps your longer-term plan for capex? And as we think about modeling, do we want to be thinking about modeling capex as some sort of ratio as a percentage of fixed assets or revenue? And then within that component, what percent do you think is more for replacement as to opposed to the growth side of the capex? Thanks very much.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Well, capex strategy has changed over time, as we are now focused on replacement and the modernization of the aircraft fleet at Express, which is driving -- and you're already seeing it. You notice the last two fiscal years in the fourth quarter we've significantly reduced and we've retired a number of planes. Which shortened the depreciable lives, which, of course, is a -- which is a headwind for Dave's segment, but it's for replacement capital, which is much more efficient, and with fuel prices where they are, jet's at $3, it's absolutely mandatory that we continue to do that if we're going to hit our $1.6 billion goal. We want to put as much money as we possibly can into Ground because it's going to continue to grow. It's very high ROIC. Ground's margins are going to stay in the 17% to 19% range. And we're going to continue to take market share. At Freight, we've -- they've done a great job of continuing to tweak their operating model a lot more on rail. We expect Freight to grow, and so we'll invest there as well. As to capital allocation, we continue to talk about that at the strategic level all the time. And we don't have anything to say about capital allocation today, and we'll keep you posted.
Operator
Kelly Dougherty, Macquarie.
Kelly Dougherty
Analyst, Macquarie Research Equities
Alan, maybe if you could give us some more color on the different buckets outside of the SG&A, how you get to that $1.6 billion number? I know things have changed around a little bit, but if you could give us any more sense on what the size of the other buckets look like, that would be really helpful.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Well, we're only one quarter into a 12-quarter program. I was just trying to point out that we have to manage the business as well, and things change, and we're doing that. So whereas we were looking at a different revenue outlook for International Express 11 months ago, components have changed. There'll be much more IE in the future than we had anticipated, and probably less IP, although it will continue to grow, so we have to change our cost structure more than we thought. So you might see a little bit more on the cost side of the equation and a little bit less on the revenue benefits side of the equation.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Kelly, these are the buckets that we've gone over before, but just so you can put them down, domestic transformation, our domestic cost network, if you will, international profit improvement across the world, fleet modernization, efficiency of staff functions, and the process there, and of course, targeting profitable yields and revenue growth.
Operator
Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer.
Scott Schneeberger
Analyst, Oppenheimer & Co.
In Ground, you've spoken about building out a capacity and spending a bit more on capex this year. Could you give us a progress report, an update on what's going on there? You mentioned some buildout for the holidays. Also, is there any work there to strategically capitalize on e-tailer strategies, expanding distribution networks? Thanks.
Henry J. Maier
President & CEO FedEx Ground
This is Henry Maier. There were a lot of questions there, so I hope I get them all. First of all, 90% of the capital expense is to expand our capacity for growth. And the large elements of these expenditures are new hubs, building expansions and relocations, material handling, and rolling stock. So we are very disciplined, as I've said in the past here, about adding capital. We try to handle peaks in volume with operating expense instead of capital. And we generally put together a five to seven-year plan based on our forecast as to how we intend to expand the network.
Now clearly, our volume is being driven by ecommerce. I think Mike has said in the past here, it's growing five to six times the rate of brick and mortar. I would tell you that we believe that we are uniquely positioned to compete in this space. We have FedEx Home Delivery for customers that desire high-touch, high-value transportation services for their residential deliveries. FedEx Home Delivery offers extra services, including day-definite service, appointment service, and evening delivery, in addition to signature options. And then we have FedEx SmartPost, which is uniquely positioned to offer a low-cost option for customers who would like to offer free shipping to their customers, and we do this with final mile delivery by the USPS. So we think that we're uniquely positioned in the marketplace to capture our fair share of ecommerce.
Operator
Jack Atkins, Stephens.
Connor Hustava
Analyst, Stephens, Inc.
This is actually Connor Hustava on for Jack today. Just had a quick question on the tech product launches that are planned here in the second half of 2013. Can you just give us some color on what you think that will do to overall industry capacity and maybe what's baked into your guidance from a volume and rate perspective? Thanks.
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
This is Mike Glenn. Obviously, we'll see some tech launches this week. There have been changes in the way that tech products are moved into the marketplace, a lot more staging of inventory going on in the international front as opposed to using expedited from door-to-door. So we have seen some changes in that regard in terms of how product is moved to the U.S. and put into inventory. We will certainly benefit from that with these launches. Probably a greater benefit in the domestic system, although it is a short burst. So even though it's a lot of traffic in a very short period of time, you don't see the long tail of that that potentially you've seen in the past, although certainly, we'll benefit from accessories and other things that come on the backend of these tech launches.
Operator
Jeff Kauffman, Buckingham Research.
Jeff Kauffman
Analyst, Sterne, Agee & Leach, Inc.
Thank you very much, and congratulations, everyone. You did take down modestly your U.S. and global forecast. I know you mentioned, Fred, that it was related to some changes in the makeups of these growth objectives. But in terms of your own outlook, you spent a little less capex than we were looking for. What are your thoughts on your capital budget for this year? And what is changing in your own forecast where you're maintaining your forward guidance in the face of lower global growth?
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
Jeff, this is Mike. Let me clarify, on the calendar-year '13 economic outlook, I mentioned that it's historical data revisions that are really driving the bulk of the reduction in our calendar-year '13 growth rates. Obviously, as GDP numbers are updated, which takes some time, we build that back into the historical trend, and that affects the forecast going forward. So really not as much material change in the fundamentals of the business as opposed to just historical data revisions on the economic forecast, and I'll let Alan handle the second part.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Jeff, we're not changing our capital spending plans for this year. As I've said, we want to continue to invest heavily in Ground, and we want to continue to do the fleet replacement at Express. As we look at '15 and '16 as part of the profit improvement program and other things, there may be a possibility that we will slide some of that further out depending on how the economy goes, and we'll just have to see. We have some flexibility to do that. But I think $4 billion is the right number for us this year, and if we can hold that level for a while as revenues grow, then we'll get a better capex-to-revenue ratio. I'm not making any '15 commitments yet because we're going to have to wait and see what the outlook looks like. But I can tell you this, the 767s, the first 25 of them, are just beautiful from a return and operating profit improvement standpoint.
Operator
William Greene, Morgan Stanley.
Bill Greene
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Mike, can you remind us on the GRI on Express, how much of the business does that cover? And also, does an increase in weight pricing changes because it seems like that's been quite effective in the past. Thank you.
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
Bill, I'm sorry. You had trouble -- we had maybe a connection issue. Could you repeat the question just a bit, maybe get a little closer to the phone?
Bill Greene
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Sure. So the question was on the GRI for Express, how much of the business does that cover, and does it include any changes in dim weight because that's been pretty effective for pricing in the past?
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
Well, it's been one of our key strategies to substantially increase the amount of parcel traffic that is covered by the GRI, and we've done a terrific job over the last three to four years. That's been a key component of our revenue management program. So well over half of the traffic is now impacted. We certainly have contracts that still are in place today that are locked into a GRI, and it's based upon the contract term and not the annual GRI. But we've done -- our sales team and our pricing science team have done a phenomenal job of working with customers to get them on an annual rate increase, so we're very pleased with that. We did not make any changes to the dimensional weight that we put in place several years ago. That's the last time we made the change. But that clearly has benefited the Company, that strategic change we made several years ago.
Operator
Allison Landry, Credit Suisse.
Allison Landry
Analyst, Credit Suisse
I was wondering if you could quantify what the overall fuel lag headwind was during the quarter and if we should be expecting a similar impact in Q2? Thank you.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Allison, this is Alan. While we don't give specific numbers, I can tell you it was significant. If you just think about how the fuel prices ran up towards the end of the quarter, and our fuel surcharge lags by six weeks, it's pretty evident that we were paying a lot higher for jet fuel and not able to pass along the surcharge. As to Q2 and the rest of the year, I wish I could tell you. It's one of the things that's a big wildcard on a quarter-to-quarter basis is what happens with particularly jet fuel prices, but also with diesel and vehicle fuel, but particularly jet fuel prices. If the global political environment calms down a little bit and the price of crude declines and jet fuel follows it, then that would be beneficial to us in the second quarter, but I can't predict it, so we just have the six-week lag, and we just have to deal with it. Over time, it evens out, but it sure does cause volatility.
Operator
Tom Wadewitz, JPMorgan.
Tom Wadewitz
Analyst, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Good morning. I wanted to follow up on one of the topics, Dave Bronczek, that you talked about in a little bit earlier, on the shift of the IE traffic and how that relates to trade downs. So your comments were pretty optimistic that you're making good progress, and I just want to get a sense, is that something that's -- you're optimistic because you're going to see this change, but you're early in the change in terms of shifting that traffic? Or have you just executed this maybe quicker than we would have anticipated, and you'd say, hey, 50% of our IE traffic is already in commercial lift, and that trade-down headwind that we've been concerned about really wasn't that big of an issue in the quarter? So some further perspective on the trade down and shift of IE traffic would be great. Thank you.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Thanks, Tom. Great question. We've actually been looking at this issue, planning for it. As you know, we've talked about it for several quarters. Our team has executed this flawlessly. It's been terrific for our customers and for our network, of course. I think you're going to see going forward that we think we have more opportunity in the International Economy side. We used to cap that International Economy traffic in our existing linehaul network, and going forward, there's an opportunity to grow that and grow it successfully. So to answer your question, we've planned it now for several quarters, we've executed it flawlessly, and we're very excited about where we are. Mike?
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
I just would add one point. I think one of the keys to success that we've had is the terrific collaboration between our sales team and the Express operating unit in terms of getting customers into the right network. And we're early in that process, but I'm extremely happy with the results in terms of how we've been able to collaborate here to get to the right solution for our customers.
Operator
Keith Schoonmaker, Morningstar.
Keith Schoonmaker
Analyst, Morningstar
I noticed a pretty strong 16% growth in International Domestic volume. Is this organic or mostly from folding in acquisitions? And I guess related, just could you comment on international regions where you've seen particular strength please?
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Yes. Good question. It's from both, actually, acquisitions and our organic European plan. The organic plan has performed outstandingly well. I'd like to thank and congratulate our team over there. We've opened 87 stations in the last 18 months, and the service has been terrific. So that with the incremental acquisitions we've added, that's where you've seen the Domestic International volume up 16%.
Operator
Kevin Sterling, BB&T Capital Markets.
Kevin Sterling
Analyst, BB&T Capital Markets
Congratulations on a nice quarter. Talked a lot about International Economy. And Alan, I think you've touched earlier, you said you talked about maybe a little more base erosion in Express. So how would you characterize where we stand today with the customer trade down? Is it the same as it was a year a go? Has it accelerated? And maybe it sounds like you guys are embracing it more, so maybe you could compare where we are today to where we were a year ago?
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
I think the bigger issue, Kevin, is we're dealing with a new normal. We've seen a lot of the trade down already from customers that have made the change to deferred services. I think we're now talking about more of a growth story going forward in terms of the mix of growth than we are the trade down story. So this is a terrific opportunity for us, and we plan to take advantage of that opportunity with our networks.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
This is Alan, if you think about the aviation and fuel and energy intensity of an international movement, and the time differential between Priority and Economy, given how high fuel prices are, you can understand why customers are trading down because they get significantly better price and they give up a couple of days. That's much more difficult to manage in the short term than what we've been managing in the U.S. between Express, Express Deferred, and Ground, which we now have right about in the right place. As you noticed, U.S. Domestic did fine in the quarter on its revenue growth. So I've got to say hats off to the sales and marketing team for grappling with this and handling this and how swift these changes occurred. And our pricing, I think, is right. It's just going to take us a little bit longer than we'd hoped to get this perfectly balanced, and Dave can give you some tactical information.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
Again, Mike mentioned it before. For example, on the high-tech sector, these big releases, in the past, I would have had to have added extra sections of flying. Now we've moved it into our FTN network, and it's very consistent; it's very reliable. And we move it into our networks in the United States in Freight and Ground. It's a perfect portfolio play for us now, and the cost and profit implications are much greater. So I think yes, we've embraced it. And I think it's a big opportunity going forward.
Operator
David Vernon, Bernstein.
David Vernon
Analyst, Sanford Bernstein
Just a couple of follow-ups on the International Economy thing. First, Dave, did you just say that the International Economy product was coming into the Ground or Freight networks as opposed to the Express network, just as a clarification on the last comment? I wasn't sure if I heard that correctly.
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
The international freight that I'm talking about coming out of Asia and around the world is just moving in a different network, in our FTN network, and we move around the world instead of on our FedEx purple tails. When traffic gets into the United States, we look at the service requirements the customers want, and if we can, we move it into Ground, we move it into Freight, and we move it at Express.
Frederick W. Smith
Chairman, President & CEO, FedEx Corp.
This is Fred Smith. Let me try to say a couple of things here to clarify some of the things that we've been commenting on. In the main Express traffic, whether it's package or light freight, it's smaller and lighter than the type of traffic that's handled in the FTN network. So these big bulk shipments, coincident with product releases by the high-tech folks, are very difficult to handle because they are lumpy, and they have expectations of very low yields. So that's the type of movement that Dave is talking about FTN moving and then putting into the Ground and Freight movement.
The day-to-day Express movement, whether it's Priority or Economy, is picked up and transported by the Express unit. And it's moved in the right network. And as Dave said, on the linehaul side, depending on what the customer wants, it's toggled between Express and FTN, depending on the nature of the traffic. You certainly cannot fly an owned airplane at today's yields in the general commodity freight network. Now, you can say, I'm making money in my underbellies if you're a combination carrier, but at today's yields, it's almost too costly to cover the direct operating expenses, much less the capital expenses for some of these operations.
So the market has changed. And as Dave and Mike have said, and I said at the last conference call, it's important that you recognize that the International Economy Express is a growth sector. Dave, you said it's growing 15%. So we've embraced that. And the strategy we've put in place over the last year, and which our people have executed, is terrific. And it's a perfect complement to this heavier traffic that FTN carries, an awful lot of which goes on the ocean, and that is inserted into the Ground and Freight networks when they get in the United States. So I think there was a little bit of misunderstanding about the demographics of the traffic as well as the nomenclature of the traffic.
Operator
Brian Jacoby, Goldman Sachs.
Brian Jacoby
Analyst, Goldman Sachs
Thanks for taking my question. Regarding future aircraft purchases, can you maybe tell us a little bit more about where you guys stand with respect to leasing versus purchasing the aircraft? I know you said a while back -- a few years back that you're probably leaning more towards putting those aircraft on balance sheet now that you guys are pretty well positioned in the investment-grade world.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
This is Alan. Pretty shortly, everything's going on balance sheet, whether it's leased or not, so that's not why we leased the airplanes in the past. We're going to own airplanes going forward because we are a full effective taxpayer, and we can use those benefits, and one of the reasons we accelerated our capital over the last couple of years was, in fact, to take advantage of the 100% and 50% bonus depreciation.
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
We haven't leased an airplane in years. 2000, Mickey just informed me.
Operator
Jay Van Sciver, Hedgeye.
Jay Van Sciver
Analyst, Hedgeye
Thank you for taking my question. Looking at your International Express regional market position you have an outstanding franchise in the Americas and Asia, but a weaker position in Europe. Does that lack of balance hurt margins? And how could you strengthen your presence in Europe?
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
The comment that I made earlier, and I think we talked about it before, our organic European expansion is adding a very nice layer of growth, and cost improvement in Europe, and traffic coming in from around the world into Europe. So we are working hard to be more balanced. I think that's your point. But we've seen tremendous results in our plans now. We've had it now in place for 18 months, and we plan to expand that going forward into the next fiscal year.
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
Just to remind you, in the last 12 months, we bought companies in Poland, France, and South Africa.
Frederick W. Smith
Chairman, President & CEO, FedEx Corp.
And a couple of years ago, we made a great acquisition in the United Kingdom, and FedEx UK is a terrific operation now.
Operator
David Campbell, Thompson Davis & Company.
David Campbell
Analyst, Thompson Davis & Company
Most of my questions have been answered, but I did just want to understand, the forecasts for fiscal '14 are partially based on so-called stable fuel prices. Does that mean stable relative to the prices in August? Stable to what?
Alan B. Graf, Jr.
Executive Vice President & CFO, FedEx Corp.
It means that there's no volatility in them from where we are because of the lag time between the surcharge and the cost of the fuel, which I think I talked about earlier.
David Campbell
Analyst, Thompson Davis & Company
Right. Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Justin Yagerman with Deutsche Bank.
Justin Yagerman
Analyst, Deutsche Bank
I don't know if I missed it or not, but I didn't hear the change in frequencies out of Asia when I had asked that with Dave earlier. And then I wanted to ask about the GRI, following up on Bill Greene's question. The other thing that we didn't see this year is a change in the fuel surcharge alongside of a GRI with Express, so I was curious if you guys feel like that may not be needed anymore, or if that's something that you just decided not to do this year, or if that wasn't something that you disclosed in the release?
David J. Bronczek
President & CEO, FedEx Express
This is Dave Bronczek. On your first point, it was my first comments that I made. We actually adjusted our global network coming out of Asia this quarter similarly to what we did last quarter. So yes, you're right. We adjusted Asia down.
T. Michael Glenn
Executive Vice President - Market Development & Corporate Communications, FedEx Corp.
This is Mike. We began in 2005 of instituting higher base rate increases while reducing the fuel surcharge, as you noted. The strategy there was to help ensure that the fuel surcharge index was properly aligned to fuel prices, and it also gave customers more predictability because if the base rates have been adjusted to account for some of the fuel surcharge, obviously, that doesn't have the volatility that it would have if it were sitting in the fuel surcharge. We believe the index as it sits today, and has been in place since last January, is appropriate for the current environment, although obviously, we'll reevaluate that each year as part of the GRI, and we'll determine next year as to whether we need to go back to the prior practice or continue with what we did this year.
Operator
Scott Group with Wolfe Research.
Scott Group
Analyst, Wolfe Research
Thanks for the follow up. So wanted to ask one on Ground. Is there any way to bucket how much of the margin pressure Ground is fuel and how much is the capex rollout? And as we think about that capex spend, is this one year that sets you up for four or five years of growth, or are we at the point where you're going to have big capex increases in Ground every year for a while?
Henry J. Maier
President & CEO FedEx Ground
Scott, this is Henry Maier. As I said before, virtually all of the margin impact in the first quarter year-over-year is due to unfavorable fuel. Concerning capex, we put together five-, six-year forecasts on our capital needs based on our growth and where we see we're going to be constrained in the network. I'll say again that we are very disciplined about where we add capital. We try to avoid adding capital for peaks in business as best we can. We tend to handle those with operating cost, and I think that's probably the answer to your question.
Operator
Derek Rabe, Raymond James.
Derek Rabe
Analyst, Raymond James
This is Derek on for Art this morning. Thanks for taking my question. Most of my questions have been answered. Wanted to look at the Freight division, though, if I could. Maybe some commentary there on how demand trended throughout the quarter, and then how it's shaping up so far in September? Thank you.
William J. Logue
President & CEO, FedEx Freight
Okay, Derek, thank you. Appreciate the question. Again, we're pleased with our momentum as we had good balance between yield, weight per shipment, and volume. A few network adjustments during the quarter, and again, we had one less business day, so we were pleased with our progress in the quarter. And again, the ops team is doing a really nice job on the efficiencies to balance off that one less day. But good balance overall, and our focus is on good balance yield.
Operator
Dave Ross, Stifel Investments.
Bruce Chan
Analyst, Stifel Nicolaus
It's Bruce Chan again. I just wanted to switch gears a little bit to talk about SmartPost. Underlying postal rates there went up a little bit, and foreseeably, are going to continue to do so. At what point do you guys plan on shifting some of that volume onto maybe your own fleet, or are you going to continue to pass rates through and keep things as they are?
Henry J. Maier
President & CEO FedEx Ground
This is Henry Maier. We have the ability through our contracts to pass through postal increases. We are always impacted, though, by the timing and customer mix in terms of how quickly we can realize that. And decisions to switch between networks are largely customer decisions. We don't drive that.
William J. Logue
President & CEO, FedEx Freight
This is Bill Logue from Freight. I've got a question here that came in on the Internet from William Flynn. What are the opportunities for increasing leverage gains in Freight? It seems as if you're taking advantage of investments and equipment in the form of lower maintenance costs, but these are being offset by increased PT costs -- purchased transportation costs. So how should we think about the dynamics in Freight going forward?
A good question. Again, we've made some good investments in our fleets over the last three years. Purchased transportation is an offset. Again, PT right now is -- you see rates are up. We're moving, as we saw, moved more to the rail, so combination of moving to the rail, price increases in purchased transportation, but again, seeing the offsetting benefit in our linehaul. So again, it looks -- we'll look at -- keep investing in the fleet as, obviously, making sure we have appropriate equipment running at good efficiencies. But again, purchased transportation will always be a supplement to our linehaul, and again, our objective there is a combination because rail comes in the purchased transportation bucket. So again, linehaul is, as we all know is good -- is a key objective to improve that for the organization, and again, a great benefit for leverage going forward for our business.
Operator
Thank you. And that does conclude today's question-and-answer session. Mr. Foster, at this time, I'd like to turn the conference back over to you for additional or closing remarks, sir.
A. Mickey Foster
VP - Investor Relations, FedEx Corp.
Thank you for your participation in FedEx Corporation's first-quarter earnings release conference call. Feel free to call anyone on the Investor Relations team if you have additional questions about FedEx. Thanks again. Bye.
Operator
And that does conclude today's conference. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.