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Company Profile - Airborne, Inc.

3101 Western Ave.
Seattle, WA 98111

Phone: 206-285-4600
Fax: 206-281-1444
Website: www.airborne.com
Ticker Symbol: ABF

Key Facts

Number three (behind Fed-Ex and UPS) in U.S. airfreight shipping by volume.
Reorganization at the end of 2000 led to the creation of holding company Airborne, Inc. with subsidiaries Airborne Express, Inc.; ABX Air, Inc.; and Sky Courier, Inc.
DHL is buying Airborne to secure its ground operations in the U.S.
Number 479 in the Fortune 500.

Key Financial Facts
2002 revenue: $3,344 million
1-yr. growth rate: 4 percent

Personnel Highlights
Number of employees: 22,500
1-yr. growth rate: 0 percent

Company Overview
Serving the shipping needs of worldwide customers since 1946, Airborne is the third-largest air express courier in America. Originally created to fly fresh flowers between Hawaii and California, Airborne Flower Traffic Association merged with Pacific Air Freight in 1968.

In 1980, Airborne Freight Corporation divided into four divisions and became the first carrier to operate a privately owned airport. Fifty airplanes enabled Airborne to move 500,000 packages per month. In 1981, Airborne began the first phase of its package-sorting facility, handling 20,275 packages each night.

Airborne received approval to establish its own foreign trade zone in 1984, and built a fuel facility for jet A fuel by 1985. Today, the holding company Airborne comprises three subsidiaries: Airborne Express, Inc. (formerly Airborne Freight Corporation); ABX Air, Inc.; and Sky Courier, Inc (formerly Airborne Forwarding Corporation). All told, the company has 334 shipping facilities, 15,247 delivery vehicles, 15,126 drop boxes, and 116 owned and 62 chartered aircraft serving more than 450,000 active customers in 200-plus countries. Airborne has also extended its partnership with the U.S. Postal Service in which the latter will continue to deliver two-day shipments to e-commerce customers.

DHL is acquiring Airborne in order to take over its U.S. ground operations, which it started in 2001. ABX Air is being spun off to Airborne shareholders in the process.

Major Line of Business : Transportation

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