Two giant pandas have landed in Atlanta after a nonstop trans-Pacific hop that flight trackers couldn't get enough of. Ping Ping, a six-year-old male, and Fu Shuang, a female who turns six this month, flew from Chengdu to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International on a FedEx Boeing 777F, logging roughly 15.5 hours and 6,900 nautical miles in the air. At one point the flight was the most-tracked plane on Flightradar24.
The pair will spend the next decade at Zoo Atlanta, which lost its panda crowd in late 2024 when a 25-year loan agreement with China expired. That time, FedEx flew four pandas home to Chengdu — 27-year-old pair Lun Lun and Yang Yang plus their twins. Now the city gets pandas back, and Zoo Atlanta's CEO says the team can't wait to welcome visitors back to see them.
FedEx branded flights like this the 'Panda Express', and the logistics are more elaborate than you'd guess. The pandas spent a month in quarantine getting used to their crates and loud noises before the trip. Keepers and vets from Atlanta flew with them, and the freighter was stocked with steamed corn buns, bamboo shoots and carrots. FedEx says more than 80 team members worldwide help plan each mission, and the pandas are usually the only cargo on board. Special crates have removable side panels so staff can check on and feed the animals mid-flight. The 777F's official range of 5,000 nautical miles assumes a full 100-tonne payload; with just two pandas and a few people on board, a nonstop Chengdu-to-Atlanta run is comfortably doable.
FedEx has been doing this since December 2000, when Mei Xiang and Tian Tian flew to Washington Dulles on an MD-11 — a 17-hour trip with a refuelling stop in Anchorage. Sunday's arrivals bring the carrier's panda tally to 23. The most recent mission before this was October 2024, when the same 777F ferried Atlanta's four pandas to Chengdu, then returned to Washington carrying two-year-olds Bao Li and Qing Bao for the Smithsonian's National Zoo.
Why does this matter to travellers? Panda diplomacy remains a genuine draw: China has loaned pandas to overseas zoos since 1972, and no US zoo southeast of Washington currently has them. From next spring, Atlanta joins the short list again — and given how busy panda enclosures get at the National Zoo, Zoo Atlanta is about to become one of the hottest family tickets in the city. If you're planning an Atlanta trip with kids, the new arrivals are a solid reason to time it right.
