It takes plenty of space to park a wide-body cargo jet, and UPS’s facility at Kansas City International Airport is getting a lot more of it. The facility, known as an air gateway, is being renovated and expanded. The most visible part of the work is expanding the ramp from two aircraft parking spots to five. The new ramp will be 534,000 square feet, more than nine football fields in size. In addition to the new ramp, UPS also will install new sorting equipment at the gateway, more than tripling package handling capacity to 5,000 packages per hour. Construction in Kansas City is planned to begin in late October with completion in the fall of 2021.

In FY 2017, the Postal Service recorded its first net loss from operations, since FY 2013, of $1.3 billion, largely due to declining mail volume, the expiration of the exigent surcharge, and higher operating costs. However, including non-cash workers’ compensation costs and retirement expenses, the net loss from operations increases to a total net loss of $2.7 billion in FY 2017. This is an improvement of $2.8 billion compared to the total net loss in FY 2016. This improvement is the result of a $4.8 billion decrease in the retiree health benefits expense, and a $3.4 billion decrease in the non-cash workers’ compensation expense, offset by $2.4 billion in increased expenses that resulted from provisions in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) for unfunded retirement benefit costs. Liquidity also continues to improve in FY 2017 and is at its highest level since FY 2007. However, liabilities on and off-balance sheet for pension and annuitant health benefits continue to threaten the improvements in liquidity. The Postal Service experienced a decline in revenue for most of its Market Dominant products. Consumer price index-based price increases were not sufficient to offset the decline in mail volume and the reduction in additional revenue from the expiration of the exigent surcharge. Overall Market Dominant Mail and Services revenue declined 7.7 percent from the previous year. First-Class Mail revenue declined by 6.7 percent while Marketing Mail revenue declined by 5.7 percent. Periodicals revenue also saw a decline of 8.8 percent. Conversely, package services revenue increased by 0.3 percent compared to FY 2016. Click Read More below for additional information.

U.S. oil prices rose on Tuesday and gasoline fell as the gradual restart of refineries in the Gulf of Mexico that were shut by Hurricane Harvey raised demand for crude and eased fears of a fuel supply crunch. Gasoline futures RBc1 dropped 4 percent from their last close, to $1.68 per gallon, down from $2.17 on Aug. 31 and back to levels last seen before Harvey hit the U.S. Gulf Coast and its large refining industry. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures Clc1 rose more than 1 percent to $47.84 per barrel by 1008 GMT, up 55 cents from their last settlement. “Gasoline fell as refineries in Texas began to reopen,” said William O‘Loughlin, investment analyst at Rivkin Securities. Texas was edging towards recovery from the devastation of Harvey as shipping channels, oil pipelines and refineries restarted some operations.