Grizzled FedEx Express veteran Joey has retired after nearly 50 years flying.

Joey, more formally known as Aircraft N365FE, last flew to Victorville, California, from Memphis on March 29 to join other retired FedEx Express planes. The MD-10 jet logged 91,452 hours and 56 minutes in the air over its career, according to FedEx.

The plane was the sixth DC-10 off its production line and first flew in 1971 for United Airlines, according to civil aircraft information site Airfleets. Two years later, a Memphis company called Federal Express officially began operations.

FedEx acquired the plane in 1997 after it logged many flight hours with United, converting it into a freighter and naming it “Joey,” the company said.

“Each time a new aircraft joins the fleet or gets a facelift, the name of a FedEx Express team member’s child is selected and painted proudly beneath the captain’s window,” FedEx noted in a recent news release about a newly named aircraft.

Joey received a cockpit upgrade in 2006, converting it from a DC-10 to an MD-10. That conversion saved costs by cutting the flight crew from three to two people and having commonality with MD-11 planes, according to Boeing. It continued carrying cargo for FedEx for 13 years after that.

FedEx had 33 MD-10s (both MD-10-10s and MD-10-30s) in its fleet as of February but is retiring them fast. The company is phasing out the last of them in the 2022 fiscal year as it acquires more Boeing 767 planes.

FedEx began replacing MD-10s with 767s in 2014 to reduce operating costs and increase fuel efficiency, translating to millions in annual savings per plane, The Commercial Appeal previously reported.

“Last year, for example, the aircraft fleet modernization program saved 89.3 million gallons of jet fuel, avoiding more than 860,000 metric tons of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions,” FedEx said in its 2018 annual report.

FedEx’s average fleet age is currently 21.8 years old, according to aviation database Planespotters, but the MD-10s in service run much older. Most are in their forties, and one named “Cindy” is close to Joey's age at 47.7 years old, per Planespotters.

Max Garland covers FedEx, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @MaxGarlandTypes.