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Commitments
12 Months Ended
May 31, 2012
Commitments [Abstract]  
Commitments

NOTE 13: COMMITMENTS

 

Annual purchase commitments under various contracts as of May 31, 2012 were as follows (in millions):

  Aircraft and        
  Aircraft-Related Other(1)  Total   
            
2013 $ 965 $ 14 $ 979  
2014   558   15   573  
2015   824   12   836  
2016   912   29   941  
2017   1,009   10   1,019  
Thereafter  5,166   95   5,261  
            
(1) Primarily advertising and promotions contracts.
            

The amounts reflected in the table above for purchase commitments represent noncancelable agreements to purchase goods or services. As of May 31, 2012, our obligation to purchase 13 B777Fs was conditioned upon there being no event that causes FedEx Express or its employees not to be covered by the Railway Labor Act of 1926, as amended (“RLA”). Commitments to purchase aircraft in passenger configuration do not include the attendant costs to modify these aircraft for cargo transport unless we have entered into noncancelable commitments to modify such aircraft.  Open purchase orders that are cancelable are not considered unconditional purchase obligations for financial reporting purposes and are not included in the table above.

 

In December 2011, we entered into an agreement to acquire 27 new Boeing 767-300 Freighter (“B767F”) aircraft, with the first three arriving in 2014 followed by six per year from 2015 to 2018. In conjunction with the execution of the B767F aircraft purchase agreement, we also delayed the delivery of nine B777F aircraft, five of which were deferred from 2014 and one per year from 2015 to 2018, to better align air network capacity to demand. We also removed the RLA condition from two of the 15 B777F aircraft and exercised two B777F options for aircraft to be delivered at the end of the delivery schedule.

 

We had $661 million in deposits and progress payments as of May 31, 2012 on aircraft purchases and other planned aircraft-related transactions. These deposits are classified in the “Other assets” caption of our consolidated balance sheets. In addition to our commitment to purchase B777Fs and B767Fs, our aircraft purchase commitments include the Boeing 757 (“B757”) in passenger configuration, which will require additional costs to modify for cargo transport. Aircraft and aircraft-related contracts are subject to price escalations. The following table is a summary of the key aircraft we are committed to purchase as of May 31, 2012, with the year of expected delivery:

  B757 B767F B777F Total 
          
2013 10  -  4  14 
2014 -  3  2  5 
2015 -  6  2  8 
2016 -  6  2  8 
2017 -  6  2  8 
Thereafter -  6  16  22 
Total 10  27  28  65 
          

On June 29, 2012, we entered into a supplemental agreement to purchase nine additional B767F aircraft. Additionally, we exercised ten B767F options available under the December 2011 agreement and purchased the right to 15 additional options. Four of these 19 additional B767F aircraft purchases are subject to the RLA condition. These 19 additional B767F aircraft are expected to be delivered from fiscal 2015 to 2019 and will replace current MD10-10 and A310-200 aircraft to continue to improve efficiency and technology of our aircraft fleet.

 

In conjunction with the additional B767F aircraft purchases, four currently contracted B777F aircraft deliveries that were subject to the RLA condition (two scheduled for delivery in fiscal 2016 and two scheduled for delivery in fiscal 2017) were converted to equivalent purchase value for B767F aircraft. With consideration of these two agreements, there are nine B777F purchase obligations subject to the RLA condition. These aircraft transactions are not included in the table above, as they occurred subsequent to May 31, 2012.