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Founded | April 1980 | ||||||
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AOC # | ABXA001A [1] | ||||||
Hubs | |||||||
Fleet size | 24 | ||||||
Parent company | Air Transport Services Group, Inc. | ||||||
Headquarters | Wilmington Air Park Clinton County, Ohio, U.S. | ||||||
Key people | Dave Soaper (President) [3] | ||||||
Website | www |
ABX Air, Inc., formerly Airborne Express, is a cargo airline headquartered at Wilmington Air Park near the City of Wilmington, Ohio, US. [4] ABX Air operates scheduled, ad hoc charter and ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) freight services. It also provides flight support services and training. ABX Air is owned by Air Transport Services Group.
ABX Air's main customer is DHL, and the majority of the freight it carries is for that company. Many of ABX Air's aircraft are painted with DHL's yellow and red livery.
ABX also operated cargo flights on behalf of Air Jamaica between Miami and the two Jamaican cities of Montego Bay (Donald Sangster International Airport) and Kingston (Norman Manley International Airport). One of their Boeing 767-200s routinely handled the flights, replacing the Douglas DC-8 types that flew previously. The aircraft flew with an Air Jamaica callsign of "Jamaica".
The airline was established in April 1980 when Airborne Freight Corporation acquired Midwest Air Charter; operations started later that year. Airborne Express, as the airline was initially named, was a wholly owned subsidiary of Airborne Freight Corporation of Seattle. Apart from its core activity of cargo transportation, Airborne Express also performed airframe maintenance services to a number of aircraft types. [5] At March 1995 the company had 5,500 employees. [6] In January 1996 , the company acquired 12 Boeing 767 aircraft for conversion to freighters. [5]
ABX became a public company on 16 August 2003 as part of the merger of DHL and Airborne, in which DHL kept Airborne's ground operations and spun off its air operations as ABX Air Inc. ABX Air's common shares were traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the ticker symbol ABXA. In early 2007, ABX Air entered an ACMI agreement with All Nippon Airways to begin flying freight within Asia. The contract utilized two Boeing 767-200SF aircraft. [7] In March 2007, the airline had 7,600 employees. [8]
On 2 November 2007, CEO Joe Hete and the ABX Air board of directors announced that the company had entered into an agreement to acquire Cargo Holdings International, the parent company of Air Transport International (ATI) and Capital Cargo International Airlines for a cost of $350 million. The transaction was finalized on 31 December 2007, [9] and ABX Air was reorganized as a subsidiary of a holding company, later named Air Transport Services Group (ATSG). [10]
On November 10, 2008, ABX Air's largest customer, DHL, announced a plan to exit the United States domestic market. [11] Previous plans by DHL had been to keep its U.S. operations by contracting them out to United Parcel Service. [11] On 30 March 2010, ABX Air's parent company, ATSG, entered into new long-term agreements with DHL, under which ABX Air would continue providing airlift for the U.S. portion of DHL's international network. [12]
The ABX Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (updated at November 2020): [13]
Aircraft | In Fleet |
---|---|
Boeing 767-200BDSF | 15 |
Boeing 767-300BDSF | 9 |
Total | 24 |
ABX Air operated the following equipment throughout its history:
Aerovías de México, S.A. de C.V. operating as Aeroméxico, is the flag carrier of Mexico, based in Mexico City. It operates scheduled services to more than 90 destinations in Mexico; North, South and Central America; the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. Its main base and hub is located in Mexico City, with secondary hubs in Guadalajara and Monterrey. The headquarters is in the Torre MAPFRE on Paseo de la Reforma.
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Airborne Express was an express delivery company and cargo airline. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, its hub was in Wilmington, Ohio. Airborne was founded as the Airborne Flower Traffic Association of California in 1946 to fly flowers from Hawaii to the US mainland. Airborne Express was acquired by DHL in 2003. Prior to the acquisition, it rose to be the third largest private express delivery company in the United States, behind Federal Express and United Parcel Service (UPS).
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The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell Aircraft to become McDonnell Douglas. Following the introduction of its first jetliner, the high-capacity DC-8, in 1959, Douglas was interested in producing an aircraft suited to smaller routes. As early as 1958, design studies were conducted; approval for the DC-9, a smaller all-new jetliner, came on April 8, 1963. The DC-9-10 first flew on February 25, 1965, and gained its type certificate on November 23, to enter service with Delta Air Lines on December 8.
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UPS Airlines is a major American cargo airline based in Louisville, Kentucky. One of the largest cargo airlines worldwide, UPS Airlines flies to 815 destinations worldwide. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of United Parcel Service since its launch in 1988.
Wilmington Air Park is a public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) southeast of the central business district of Wilmington, a city in Clinton County, Ohio, United States. While DHL had privately owned the property while operating from the facility, the company agreed to donate the airfield to the Clinton County Port Authority.
Everts Air is an American airline based in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. It operates scheduled and charter airline cargo as well as passenger services within Alaska and Canada. Its main base is Fairbanks International Airport with its major hub at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The company slogan is Legendary Aircraft. Extraordinary Service.
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