PEOPLE & CULTURE

By FedEx | First published: February 8, 2024  Updated: February 17, 2025

Since 2000, we’ve donated our services to transport some highly unusual cargo – giant pandas! Discover how we fly these special animals halfway across the world on FedEx Panda Express planes.

• Does FedEx ship pandas? The answer is yes: we’re experts at it!
• For 25 years, the FedEx Panda Express has been flying giant pandas halfway across the world, including facilitating efforts to rehome them in their native China.
• From in-flight care to onboard snacks, discover what it takes to transport live animals safely and in complete comfort as part of our charitable initiative, Delivering For Good.

Can pandas fly on planes? 

Since 2000, FedEx planes decked out in panda livery have regularly taken to the skies for a series of special missions. Our most recent flight transported six giant pandas between the United States and China on our first-ever round-trip for the FedEx Panda Express.

Over time, we’ve learned a few things about taking care of these majestic creatures during transportation. Read on for an in-depth look at what it really takes to ship giant pandas halfway across the globe.

The story behind shipping pandas

People travel from all over the world to visit Chengdu and its giant pandas. Famous for panda conservation, the animal is the city’s unofficial mascot. Chengdu also attracts thousands of domestic tourists, with the nation’s collective adoration for pandas dubbed ‘the giant panda economy’. 

Pandas have long been envoys of friendship between China and the rest of the world. The practice of gifting giant pandas to overseas countries dates back to the Tang Dynasty. These days, China typically loans out giant pandas instead of gifting them, which allows them to be seen by many nations across the world.

The Smithsonian Zoo in Washington has a long and cherished history with pandas. The first two pandas arrived at the National Zoo in 1972, a gift from China following President Richard Nixon's historic visit to the country.

As a highly beloved species, it’s extremely important to panda lovers around the world that they are transported safely. For almost 25 years, we have worked with the Chinese authorities and zoos around the world to safely ship giant pandas to and from China.

The logistics – behind the scenes of a panda shipment

How are pandas transported? One typical example of a FedEx panda flight is the 2023 outbound transportation of pandas from the Smithsonian Zoo.

On 9 November 2023, three giant pandas arrived in Chengdu, China on the FedEx Panda Express: 25-year-old Mei Xiang, 26-year-old Tian Tian, and their three-year-old cub, Xiao Qi Ji. 

The non-stop flight was the result of months of careful planning. The panda charter involved a team of more than 80 global team members collaborating weekly for three months to ensure everything went like clockwork.

Read on for our checklist of the most important considerations when planning for the trip:

1. Safety first: prioritizing panda health and wellbeing

For our 2023 shipment, FedEx worked with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Careful planning and consultation was taken with zoo experts in the months leading up to the flight to monitor the panda family’s health. 

Once the giant pandas are on board, they’re joined by animal care experts, such as keepers and veterinarians, who keep an eye on how they’re doing throughout the journey. On arrival, they’re checked over carefully by their new keepers before being placed into quarantine for around 30 days.

And it’s not just qualified vets looking out for the pandas’ wellbeing. As an extra safety precaution during transportation from the zoo to the airport, FedEx custom panda trucks were escorted by a special police motorcade.

2. The transport: say hello to the FedEx Panda Express

What kind of planes carry animals?

At FedEx, each flight transporting live animals is specially prepared and kitted out to accommodate the needs of our unusual cargo.  

First, the pandas are placed in special crates and loaded into panda-branded FedEx vans. Typically, groups of well-wishers including media, zoo officials and the general public turn out to wave the pandas off.

Our famous Panda Express is a custom-decaled Boeing 777F adorned with panda images that pay tribute to the cargo inside. Decals are applied to both sides of the aircraft, taking four days to complete.

The pandas travel in a specially designed enclosure made from steel and plexiglass, with removable side panels that offer the attendants full view and access to the panda during the journey. Before their trip, the pandas spend time getting familiar with their crates to ensure a safe and comfortable flight. This may involve having them walk through the crate daily and spend short periods of time inside with the doors closed.

Once at the airport, giant pandas are the only cargo on the trans-Pacific flight. For the 2023 Smithsonian trip, that’s over 8,000 nautical miles from Washington’s Dulles International Airport to China’s Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, with a fuel stop in Anchorage, Alaska. Such flights can take between 16 and 19 hours.

In 2024, we embarked on our longest panda mission yet: a round-trip flight that transported:

• Four giant pandas from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport: 27-year-old Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their twin female offspring, Ya Lun and Xi Lun. They’re now safely rehomed at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.
• Two pandas from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C: two-year-old Bao Li and Qing Bao. Bao Li is the grandcub of Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, who FedEx transported to China, along with their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, in November 2023.

3. In-flight catering: keeping the pandas fed

What’s on the menu for a typical Panda Express flight? Supplies include bamboo, water, and a giant panda’s favorite treats, such as sugar cane, apples, and pears. 

For example, on a Panda Express flight in 2019 transporting 4-year-old Bei Bei, the flight was loaded with 66 pounds of bamboo, two pounds of apples and pears, two bags of leafeater biscuits, two pounds of cooked sweet potatoes and water.

Panda specialists: strengthening our special cargo expertise over time

FedEx has had the privilege of transporting 21 different pandas on 11 separate flights over the past two decades, including Tai Shan in 2010, Bao Bao in 2017 and Bei Bei in 2019. Giant pandas are a national treasure in China, and we’re proud to be chosen as the trusted carrier to support these important deliveries.

We’ve also transported pandas between China and Canada, Scotland and France. We support these projects by donating the cost of transportation as part of our charitable initiative, Delivering for Good. The program has seen us ship many unusual and rare species of wildlife, from chimpanzees and white Bengal tigers to brown bears and jaguars.

With countless special deliveries of precious cargo over the years, we continue to demonstrate the strengths and customized capabilities of our network

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For more information on how we donate our time and our transportation network to support humanitarian causes, visit our FedEx Cares page.