The cargo manifest was short. Two giant pandas, some fresh bamboo, water, a few favourite treats and their keepers from Zoo Atlanta. That was the entire load on a FedEx Boeing 777F that took off from Chengdu in the small hours of Sunday 27 September and landed in Atlanta almost 16 hours later.
The passengers were Ping Ping, a six-year-old male, and Fu Shuang, a female who turns six in October. They are in Atlanta on a ten-year loan from China, and their flight became the most-tracked flight on Flightradar24 while it was in the air, according to Simple Flying.
Informations clés
- Vol: FedEx FX9756, the "FedEx Panda Express"
- Aéronef: Boeing 777F freighter
- Itinéraire: Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL), nonstop
- Défunt: 02:55 local time, 27 September 2026 (Simple Flying, citing tracking data)
- Durée du vol : About 15 hours 55 minutes, roughly 6,900 nm (Simple Flying)
- Cargo: Two giant pandas, the sole cargo on board (FedEx)
- Pandas: Ping Ping (male) and Fu Shuang (female), both born in 2020
- Loan: Ten years at Zoo Atlanta
Sixteen Hours in a Freighter
According to flight-tracking data cited by Simple Flying, FX9756 left Chengdu at 2:55am local time and landed in Atlanta at around 6:50am local time, a flight of roughly 15 hours and 55 minutes and about 6,900 nautical miles. That is far beyond what a 777F can fly with a full payload, which is exactly why a freighter carrying nothing but two bears and their food is the ideal tool.
FedEx says the pandas travelled in custom-built crates they had been trained to use beforehand, looked after throughout the flight by Zoo Atlanta specialists. The company donated the full transport cost and also trucked the animals from the airport to the zoo.
Twenty-Three Pandas Since 2000
FedEx says this move brings the number of pandas it has flown to and from China since 2000 to 23. It brands the missions as the "FedEx Panda Express," and on earlier flights its freighters wore a large panda face painted on the nose.
The same airline took Zoo Atlanta's previous pandas home. In October 2024, at the end of a 25-year agreement, Lun Lun and Yang Yang and their twin daughters Ya Lun and Xi Lun flew from Atlanta to Chengdu on another FedEx 777F, according to Simple Flying. That left the zoo without pandas for almost two years.
Panda Diplomacy, With a Tail Number
China has used panda loans as a diplomatic signal since it sent its first pair to the United States in 1972. According to CBS News, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Atlanta loan during his state visit to Washington, and it was one of the few concrete outcomes of the trip.
The bears are now in quarantine for about a month in a biosecure area of the zoo's new panda complex, with a public debut expected later this year.
For the aviation crowd, the lesson is simpler. When the cargo is priceless, alive and famous, the answer is still a twin-engine freighter, a direct routing and a crew that has done it before.
Sources: FedEx press release, CBS News, Simple Flying.
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