Boeing Delivers 8,000th Commercial Jetliner

SEATTLE, March 1, 1996 -- Boeing commercial jetliner number 8,000 -- a 767-300ER painted in the colors of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines -- was delivered today in a ceremony at Paine Field.

The airplane will enter the KLM fleet under a lease agreement with International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) of Los Angeles.

KLM participated in another delivery milestone when it took delivery of jetliner 5,000 -- a 737-300 -- in August 1986. Number 6,000 delivered to Britannia Airways in April 1990, and Thai Airways International took number 7,000 in July 1992.

Boeing has been delivering commercial jetliners at the rate of one every 1.2 working days since the first 707 jetliner was delivered in August 1958.

Worldwide, manufacturers have delivered more than 14,700 jets of all types since 1952. Boeing deliveries represent about 54 percent of the total.

The Boeing commercial fleet -- including the 707, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and the new 777 -- have carried more than 16.3 billion passengers. They have flown approximately 130 billion passenger miles, or roughly 700 trips to the sun and back.