SEATTLE -- November 10, 1998
Airborne Freight Corporation (NYSE: ABF), which operates under the trade name Airborne Express, announced today that the company’s Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to 4,000,000 shares of common stock. All shares repurchased may be acquired over time on the open market. Shares repurchased will not be retired or canceled, but will be held as Treasury stock. There are currently issued and outstanding 48,288,285 shares of common stock.

This is the second stock repurchase announced by Airborne. The first, a repurchase of 2 million shares, was completed in September, 1998, at a total purchase price of $38.8 million.

For more than 50 years, Airborne Express has served the shipping needs of business customers around the world. Today, Airborne offers total distribution solutions by providing time-sensitive delivery of documents, letters, small packages, and freight to virtually every U.S. ZIP code and more than 200 countries. Customers can select from a variety of services including same-day, next-morning, next-afternoon or second-day delivery, ocean service, and logistics management.