Retirement Plans

3 Months Ended

Aug. 31, 2011

Retirement Plans [Abstract]

Retirement Plans

(3) Retirement Plans

We sponsor or participate in programs that provide retirement benefits to most of our employees. These programs include defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution plans and postretirement healthcare plans. A majority of our employees are covered by the FedEx Corporation Employees' Pension Plan (“FedEx Plan”), a defined benefit pension plan sponsored by FedEx. The FedEx Plan covers certain U.S. employees age 21 and over with at least one year of service and provides benefits primarily based on earnings, age and years of service. Defined contribution plans covering a majority of U.S. employees and certain international employees are in place. We also sponsor or participate in nonqualified benefit plans covering certain of our U.S. employee groups and other pension plans covering certain of our international employees. For more information, refer to the financial statements of FedEx included in its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended August 31, 2011.

Our retirement plans costs for the three-month periods ended August 31 were as follows (in millions):
		2011		2010
Pension plans sponsored by FedEx		$	80	$	80
Other U.S. domestic and international pension plans			10		10
U.S. domestic and international defined contribution
	plans		56		38
Postretirement healthcare plans			14		12
		$	160	$	140

The three-month period ended August 31, 2011 reflects the full restoration on January 1, 2011 of company-matching contributions for our 401(k) plans.

The components of the net periodic benefit cost of the pension and postretirement healthcare plans currently sponsored by us were individually immaterial for all periods presented. No material contributions were made during the first quarter of 2012 or 2011 to pension plans sponsored by us, and we do not expect to make material contributions in 2012.