Kill Devil Hills, NC

September 3, 2003

People from all over the world will join together in December to commemorate the first century of flight and the two brothers who made it all possible, Wilbur and Orville Wright. To date, nearly 100,000 tickets have been sold for the First Flight Centennial Celebration, taking place December 12-17, 2003 at Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, NC, the very site where the historic first manned, powered, controlled flights were made.

"We encourage those who haven't done so to purchase their tickets as soon as possible," said Lawrence A. Belli, Superintendent of the National Park Service's Outer Banks Group. "Tickets are still available for all days. The National Park Service, the State of North Carolina and all of our centennial partners have created a memorable and fitting celebration in honor of these two brothers who changed the world."

Belli also added that event planners have set the daily maximum capacity of the park at 35,000 attendees in order to provide the best visitor experience.

First Flight Centennial Celebration attendees represent nearly every state in the union, with North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, Ohio, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and Michigan leading the way in ticket sales. The celebration has also attracted international attention, with visitors from Canada, Australia, England, Mexico, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and Sweden planning to attend.

As of September 1, after nineteen weeks of sales, 99,060 tickets have been sold for this event.

Ticket breakout per day is:

Friday, December 12	non-ticketed day
Saturday, December 13	18,350 tickets
Sunday, December 14	18,208 tickets
Monday, December 15	18,348 tickets
Tuesday, December 16	19,559 tickets
Wednesday, December 17	24,595 tickets

The majority of tickets sold to date have been in five-day package increments, accounting for 17,904 tickets each day. Fewer buyers purchased individual day tickets. December 17 had the highest number of individual day sales with 6,691 tickets.

Individual one-day tickets are $10 per day. If an individual adult purchases entrance tickets for all five days at the time of original purchase, the package price is a one-time fee of $25. However, once 35,000 tickets have been sold for December 17th, the five-day ticket packages will no longer be available. Individual one-day tickets for the four previous days will still be available for purchase at $10 per day until the 35,000-ticket limit has been reached for each of those days.

Senior citizens, age 62 and over, and disabled individuals may purchase a daily ticket for $5 each, while available. Incentive package price for all five days is $20.

Although children age 12 and under are free, they will still need a ticket to enter the park.

Tickets are currently available online at http://www.wrightbrothers.reserveworld.com or by calling 1-800-973-7327, or (301) 722-1257 for callers outside of the United States.

All of the most recent information on the First Flight Centennial Celebration can be accessed at the Centennial website on http://www.firstflightcentennial.org.