Airline and rail division

The United States Postal Service does not directly own or operate any aircraft or trains. The mail and packages are flown on airlines with which the Postal Service has a contractual agreement. The contracts change periodically. Depending on the contract, aircraft may be painted with the USPS paint scheme.[citation needed] Contract airlines have included: Emery Worldwide, Ryan International Airlines, FedEx Express, Rhoades Aviation, American Airlines and Express One International. The Postal Service also contracts with Amtrak to carry some mail between certain cities such as Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The last air delivery route in the continental U.S., to residents in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, was scheduled to be ended in June 2009. The weekly bush plane route, contracted out to an air taxi company, had in its final year an annual cost of $46,000, or $2400/year per residence, over ten times the average cost of delivering mail to a residence in the United States.[14] This decision has been reversed by the U.S. Postmaster General.[61]