BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NYSE: EXPD) today announced second quarter 2026 financial results including the following comparisons to the same quarter of 2025:

• Diluted Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders per share (EPS1) increased 51% to $2.03
• Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders increased 45% to $266 million
• Operating Income increased 41% to $350 million
• Revenues increased 32% to $3.5 billion
• Airfreight tonnage increased 14% and ocean container volume remained flat
• Customs, Transcon, Distribution, and Order Management each achieved double-digit revenue growth for a second consecutive quarter
• Cash returned to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends was $461 million and $748 million, respectively, for the second quarter and year-to-date period of 2026

Daniel R. Wall, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“Our excellent performance this quarter, with double-digit growth across most of our products, is demonstrating that our strategy around operational excellence is working and allowing us to take market share. By focusing on increasing growth in each region, product, and district, we generated tremendous growth and diversification. Our sales, account management, and operations teams all executed extremely well globally this quarter to drive and support this momentum.

“In July we announced the expansion of our Critical Logistics Services (CLS) to include expanded global Aircraft on Ground (AOG) capabilities, further strengthening our presence in time-critical aviation and aerospace logistics. We also continue to invest in our facilities to expand our capacity to meet growing demand for temperature-controlled solutions. By focusing on high-growth markets, we will be able to better serve an even more diverse range of customer needs.”

Q2 2026 Operational Highlights

Airfreight services: “Air buy and sell rates were highly elevated during the quarter, as demand for air capacity continued to outweigh available space, particularly late in the quarter and driven largely by a reduction in passenger flights and constrained belly capacity due to the conflict in the Middle East, home to some of the world's largest commercial air cargo operators. Tonnage increased 14% compared to a year ago and was up 16% compared to Q1 2026, primarily from trade lanes that have been relatively unaffected by the conflict, particularly Asia-U.S. and Asia-Europe. The ongoing heavy demand from AI hyperscalers shows no sign of slowing down, and we have seen increased demand for freighter space, as some hyperscalers are requiring upper-deck access for their servers. In addition, e-commerce out of North Asia has been climbing closer to where it was before the U.S. government began restricting de minimis entries in Q2 2025, putting further pressure on capacity and rates. Given the current geopolitical state of the world and rising fuel costs along with tight capacity and routing challenges, air carriers are under enormous strain and may continue to be for some time.”

Ocean freight and ocean services: “Despite all of the complications impacting the ocean markets, the carriers have adapted well and managed capacity very carefully, driving an increase in rates particularly late in the quarter as demand also increased. As a result, we may be starting to see a flattening of the long downturn in the ocean market. Volumes increased 7% compared to Q1 2026, the first sequential increase since the third quarter of 2025. Strengthening demand combined with heightened pricing late in the quarter led to an increase in profitability per-container in Q2 2026.”

Customs brokerage and other services: “For a second consecutive quarter, customs and our other products within Customs brokerage and other services all generated double-digit growth from a diverse range of geographies and business sectors, led by demand from AI hyperscalers and other high-value technology customers. Our customs business benefited from tariff-related complexity, along with solid growth from new customers and increased declarations from existing customers. A temporary surge in IEEPA-related filings drove higher pricing, while cost discipline and productivity investments also helped improve our results.”

David A. Hackett, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, added:

“Our business performed exceptionally this quarter, and our pipeline of new business is very strong. Included in our results is a $25 million pretax restructuring charge related to our Global Technology team. This restructuring was done to modernize and reshape our Global Technology function for the future. While this was a strategic restructuring not driven by cost reduction, we expect it will lower our cost structure going forward by approximately $50 million annually, which equates to nearly 10% of our total corporate overhead expenses. We will continue making high-return investments, including additional investments in artificial intelligence and in our technology talent, capabilities, and solutions, consistent with our modernization strategy, to further increase our operating margins over the long term. The restructuring charge was partially offset by a $16 million gain on the sale of an underutilized property during the quarter.

“As shown above, our strategic investments continue to enhance productivity as our operating efficiency increased to 32.2% in Q2, inclusive of the restructuring charge and before the lower operating costs noted above take effect. In addition, our second quarter headcount remained essentially flat vs. the first quarter of 2026; these measures do not yet fully include the reduction in headcount from the restructuring activities, which will primarily be realized in the third quarter.”

Mr. Hackett noted that the Company returned $461 million in dividends and share repurchases during the quarter and $748 million in dividends and share repurchases for the first half of 2026.

2026 Investor Day

Expeditors plans to hold an Investor Day for its shareholders and analysts on the morning of Wednesday, November 18, 2026, in New York City.

About Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.:

Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. The Company employs trained professionals in 171 district offices and numerous branch locations located on six continents linked into a seamless worldwide network through an integrated information management system. Services include the consolidation or forwarding of air and ocean freight, customs brokerage, vendor consolidation, cargo insurance, time-definite transportation, order management, warehousing and distribution and customized logistics solutions.

Disclaimer on Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained in this news release are “forward-looking statements,” based on management’s views with respect to future events and underlying assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding our ability to take market share, to strengthen our presence in time-critical aviation and aerospace logistics, to expand our capacity to meet growing demand for temperature-controlled solutions, and to better serve an even more diverse range of customer needs; the resilience of our non-asset-based model; strategies and solutions to keep customer freight moving out of and around impacted areas; our disciplined cost control; a strong pipeline of new business and diverse areas of growth; robust demand for our customs brokerage services; our ability to work closely with our customers and carrier partners to find solutions and deliver value, while aligning our resources to maximize profitability; and our ability to achieve benefits from restructuring our Global Technology team and from making investments in technology, including artificial intelligence to help drive productivity gains. Future financial performance could differ materially because of factors such as: geopolitical uncertainty; national policy changes on tariffs and other similar measures; new capacity in the marketplace; longer ocean transit times; e-commerce demand in the air market; volatile rates; the price of fuel or fuel shortages; our ability to deliver differentiated performance because of our customer service culture and compensation model; our ability to continue to process an increasing number of more complex customs clearances; and our ability to remain a strong, healthy, unified and resilient organization. Port actions, other labor disruptions, tariffs, and the current uncertainty in the global economy could have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, including, without limitation, those related to the success of our strategy and desire to maintain historical unitary profitability, our ability to attract and retain customers, our ability to manage costs, interruptions to our information technology systems, the ability of third-party providers to perform, and potential litigation and contingencies, including risks associated with tax audits, as updated by our reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These and other factors are discussed in the Company’s regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, and the Company’s most recent Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release speak only as of this date and the Company does not assume any obligation to update them except as required by law.

During the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, we repurchased 2.3 million and 4.3 million shares of common stock at an average price of $151.50 and $148.87. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2025, we repurchased 2.0 million and 3.5 million shares of common stock at an average price of $112.05 and $114.31 per share.

Investors may submit written questions via email to: [email protected]. Questions received by the end of business on August 7, 2026 will be considered in management's 8-K “Responses to Selected Questions.”

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260803724560/en/

Daniel R. Wall

President and Chief Executive Officer

(206) 674-3455

David A. Hackett

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

(206) 674-3400

Geoffrey Buscher

Director - Investor Relations

(206) 892-4510

Source: Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.