Airborne Freight of California John D. McPherson and partners incorporated San Francisco-based Airborne Flower Traffic (AFC) in California 23 April 1947. AFC was one of the first five air
freight forwarders issued letters of registration in 1948 by the
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US commercial air transport. As an
indirect air carrier, Airborne Flower Traffic fell under the purview of the CAB. AFC changed its name to Airborne Flower and Freight Traffic in 1948 and to Airborne Freight Corporation in 1965, the same year it
went public. AFC was the clear number two air freight forwarder (after
Emery Air Freight) by tons shipped in the early 1950s. In 1958 it was number two by revenue in the industry after
Emery Air Freight. At the time of its merger with Pacific Air Freight, AFC remained number two, but was in financial trouble, in part due to a poorly-programmed computer installation.
Pacific Air Freight Philip Gruger started Pacific Air Freight (PAF) 1949; it received its CAB authorization as an air freight forwarder in 1950. Holt W. Webster, a former
Northwest Airlines freight employee, joined Gruger in 1951, making it a two-person operation. Its original business was arranging air transport of
produce and contractor equipment to Alaska. For many years, PAF was a more modest operation than AFC. For instance, in 1956, PAF revenues were $400K versus AFC's $2.1 million. PAF grew quickly after Webster became president in 1962. In 1965, Airborne's forwarding revenue was $16.3 million (number 2 in the industry), PAF was number 7 at $6.4 million (number 1 was
Emery Air Freight at $49.7 million). By 1967, PAF had $23.1 million in revenue vs $25 million for Airborne. AFC was PAF's main competitor; the
Justice Department objected to the 1968 merger on anti-trust grounds, but the CAB approved it on the basis that AFC seemed likely to collapse without the merger. The two companies merged into a new Delaware-incoporated entity, Airborne Freight Corporation (ABF).
Transition to package express company ABF remained the number two air freight forwarder through 1977
US air cargo deregulation. In that year, Emery had $340 million in revenue while in second place was ABF with $150 million. Emery bought Purolator in 1987 to reinforce its overnight market share, but the merger was unsuccessful and by 1989 Emery withdrew from small package delivery. ABF ended the 1980s as a third-player survivor after much larger FedEx and UPS. In 1985, ABF adopted "Airborne Express" as its trade name. In 1989, ABF renamed its airline to
ABX Air to reduce the chance of confusion between the carrier and its parent. By 1990, the package express business (outside of USPS) consolidated to Federal Express, UPS and ABF. In December 2000, the company restructured, with Airborne, Inc. becoming a holding company, the former ABF now called Airborne Express, Inc. and ABX Air becoming a holding company subsidiary. In 2003, DHL agreed to buy Airborne for $1.05 billion (over $1.8 billion in 2026 terms), part of a strategy by which DHL would attempt to become a third large domestic US package express company. At the time, respective domestic overnight package delivery shares of Airborne, FedEx and UPS were estimated to be 19%, 46% and 33%. The transaction closed 15 August, as part of which ABX Air was spun out to shareholders due to DHL's foreign ownership. ==Business model==