Astronics Corporation -130 Commerce Way - East Aurora, NY -14052-2191

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ASTRONICS CORPORATION REPORTS THIRD QUARTER 2004 RESULTS

• Net sales increase 11% driven by business jet market
  
• Net loss a result of increasing engineering and development expense for new programs
  
• Backlog at highest level in two years
  

EAST AURORA, NY, October 28, 2004 - Astronics Corporation (NASDAQ: ATRO),a leader in advanced, high performance lighting and electronics systems for the global aerospace and defense industry, today reported a net loss for the 2004 third quarter of $0.4 million, or $.05 per share, compared with last year's third quarter loss of $0.3 million, or $.04 per share. Net sales increased $0.8 million, or 11%, to $8.4 million for the third quarter of 2004, which ended October 2, 2004. Net sales for the third quarter of 2003 were $7.6 million

The increase in sales for the third quarter was the result of increases in sales to the three aircraft markets that Astronics serves: business jet, military and commercial transport. Sales to the business jet market for the reported period increased 21.6%, up $0.4 million to $2.4 million from sales of $2.0 million in the third quarter last year. Military sales in the third quarter of this year were $4.3 million, up 10.3%, or $.4 million, from the same period last year. Sales to the commercial transport market in the 2004 third quarter were $1.5 million compared with $1.3 million in the same period last year.

Gross profit as a percent of sales declined to 11.6% in this year's third quarter from 14.5% in the same period last year as engineering and development costs net of nonrecurring engineering revenue increased $0.4 million to $1.2 million. The increase of engineering and development costs is being driven by the high number of developmental projects awarded to Astronics during the past two years. Selling, general and administrative and interest costs declined to $1.4 million this quarter compared with $1.5 million last year. During the quarter, Astronics recorded a charge of $150 thousand to its bad debt expense relating to the write down of a note receivable held by the Company. The note relates to the sale in 2001 of a former production facility that was sold when the Company built its current operation in East Aurora, NY. At October 2, 2004 the note was valued at $300 thousand, or approximately 50 percent of the face value of the note. Offsetting the write-down was the reversal of approximately $100 thousand of accrued variable compensation.

Peter J. Gundermann, President and CEO of Astronics Corporation, noted, "As we expected, the third quarter proved to be a challenging one for our bottom-line. We continue to have engineering and development expense pressures that we had in the first half of the year. And, we expect this higher level of expense will continue through the fourth quarter. On the positive side, we continue to make very good progress with our new development programs, many of which are transitioning to production programs. We had excellent bookings during the quarter with a book-to-bill ratio of 1.38 and our backlog is in excellent shape as we prepare for 2005."

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