Airborne Express

Airborne Express

Company History

Airborne Express is an air-express transportation company that provides delivery of small packages and documents throughout the United States and to and from foreign countries. Airborne is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, but its core was in Wilmington, Ohio. The company was descended from two specialty airfreight carries; in 1946 as the Airborne Flower Traffic Association of California, flying flowers from Hawaii to the US mainland and in 1949 by Pacific Air Freight, which focused more on the delivery of perishable items to and from Alaska. The two merged together in 1968 to form the Airborne Freight Corporation.

Airborne has grown over the years, becoming the third largest private express delivery company in the United States.

1980: Airborne Freight Corporation changed its name to Airborne Express after buying Midwest Air Charter. They also purchased the Clinton County Air Force Base in Wilmington, Ohio, becoming the first airline in history to own and operate and airport.

1988: Airborne Express began offering its customers same day delivery after the purchase of Sky Courier, now DHL Same Day.

1991: Airborne received awards from 3 major companies which included Volvo. In 1992, they announced Flight Ready SM, which was a prepaid express letter and packaging system.

1993: Airborne Logistics Systems (ALS) was introduced, which provided Airborne Express with services in their warehouse and distribution centers.

1995: Airborne opened a second runway on their Wilmington, Ohio base. 767 Boeing jets were added.

1996-1998: Airborne tripled their stock, and Airborne Brokerage Services was formed. Airborne became part of the Fortune 500. Their airline won their first award by The Business Consumer Guide.

1999: Airborne@Home, an alliance of the United States Postal Service was formed.

2000: The company appointed a new president, Carl Donaway. Also in 2000, Airborne started their first ground service.

2001: Ground Delivery Service was launched along with 10:30 am Delivery Service. Airborne.com launched new services of their own to their customers, including Airborne eCourier and the Small Business Center.

2003: On August 14th, shareholders approved the acquisition of Airborne, Inc. to DHL which is owned by Deutsche Post World Net. Airborne’s air operations operated as ABX Air, Inc. and their ground services as DHL.

2008: On November 10th, DHL announced that they were discontinuing air and ground operations within the United States, cutting 9,500 jobs within the company. DHL Express would continue to operate between the US and other countries. They also announced that