Two giant pandas from China arrived in Atlanta on Sunday aboard a FedEx Boeing 777 freighter, nonstop from Chengdu, the U.S. cargo carrier said.

FedEx said the male, Ping Ping, and the female, Fu Shuang, flew from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on the aircraft it calls the "FedEx Panda Express." The pandas travelled in custom-built crates under the care of Zoo Atlanta animal specialists, the company said.

According to flight tracking data reported by aviation website Simple Flying, the aircraft operated as flight FX9756 and left Chengdu at 2:55 am local time. The nonstop journey took more than 15 hours.

FedEx said it donated the full cost of the transport as part of its corporate social responsibility and conservation efforts. The company also provided trucking and logistics support to move the pandas from the airport to Zoo Atlanta. Including this flight, FedEx has carried 23 pandas to and from China since 2000, it said.

The same aircraft type carried Zoo Atlanta's previous pandas home. In October 2024, a FedEx 777F flew Lun Lun, Yang Yang and their twin cubs Ya Lun and Xi Lun from Atlanta to Chengdu when the zoo's 25-year loan agreement with China ended, Simple Flying reported.

The pandas will be on loan to Zoo Atlanta for 10 years under a new agreement between the zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. Both were born in 2020 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Atlanta becomes one of three U.S. zoos with giant pandas, alongside the San Diego Zoo and the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the loan during his state visit to Washington last week. "The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans," Xi said on Thursday, according to ABC News.

The pandas have begun a quarantine of about a month in a biosecure area of the zoo's new panda complex and will not be visible to visitors during that time. Zoo Atlanta has not announced a public debut date.

Sources: FedEx/Simple Flying/ABC News/CBS News/The Guardian