Braathens
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| Braathens | ||
|---|---|---|
| IATA BU |
ICAO BRA |
Callsign Braathens |
| Founded | 1946 | |
| Hubs | Oslo Airport, Gardermoen | |
| Focus cities / secondary hubs | Trondheim Airport, Værnes Bergen Airport, Flesland Stavanger Airport, Sola |
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| Frequent flyer program | BRACard | |
| Alliance | KLM-Northwest | |
| Fleet size | 26 | |
| Destinations | ||
| Parent company | Braathens Family and KLM | |
| Headquarters | Oslo | |
| Key people | CEO Arne A. Jensen | |
| Website: http://www.braathens.no | ||
Braathens airline, until 1997 known as Braathens S.A.F.E or Braathens South American and Far East Air Transport A/S merged with the Norwegian part of Scandinavian Airlines to become SAS Braathens in 2004. The airline was based in Oslo, first at Fornebu, later at Gardermoen. The airline was the largest domestic carrier in Norway for many years, and the only carrier to have the Norwegian flag on the tailplane.
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[edit] History
[edit] Far East
The airline was founded on March 26, 1946 by Norwegian ship owner Ludvig G. Braathen, with the intention of serving his ships in other parts of the world, and started operating charter routes to the Far East and to South America using US Air Force surplus Douglas DC-4 aircraft, departing for the first time on January 30, 1947.
Originally the flights were only flown during the day, with hotel overnighting for passengers and crew. The route flown was Oslo - (Stavanger) - Amsterdam - Marseille - Cairo - Basra - Karachi - Calcutta - Bangkok - Hong Kong. At this time there were no European land aircraft flights to the Far East. Only BOAC operated a sea plane route. Later the same year Braathen SAFE acquired Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In total Braathens SAFE flew 75 flights to Hong Kong in 1947 and 1948.
Det Norske Luftfartsselskap (DNL, later SAS) had a monopoly on international flights from Norway. Braathen SAFEs flights from Norway to the Far East were so regular that Norwegian authorities claimed them to be scheduled and forced the airline to apply for concession. Braathens thretend to register abroad, and the result was that they were awarded the concession to Hong Kong in 1949, with a duration of five years.
Braathens SAFE also flew to both Venezuela and Panama in 1948, but failed to get proper permissions, and didn't set up regular flights.
But when the Scandinavian Airlines System was set up in 1951, it was given a monopoly on international flights originating and operating from Scandinavia. Via an agreement with Icelandic airline Loftleidir that lasted for 10 years, Braathens SAFE could, with Icelandic concessions, operate their DC-4 routes from Europe to the US, via Iceland.
[edit] SAFE goes domestic
When Braathens SAFE applied for a renewed concession for the Far Eastern route in 1954, they were turned down, and Braathens SAFE was forced to rebuild the airline's structure to turn it into a successful domestic-only airline. Braathens SAFE was given concession to operate a number of domestic routes. Initially SAS was given a monopoly also on domestic routes, since the Norwegian government owned 1/7 of the stock, but routes that they chose not to operate, other airlines could apply for. This resultet in Braathens SAFE getting a fair number of concessions, among others to Stavanger and Trondheim.
The first domestic route flown by the airline was Oslo - Tønsberg - Stavanger with De Havilland DH.114 Heron aircraft, the first delivered May 3, 1952. In 1953 the airline got permistion to fly temporarily to Trondheim, and in 1956 permenently, two routes that the airline operated until its algamation with SAS. Røros 1953 and Kristiansand 1955 were also incorporated into the domestic routes.
In 1956 the airline got the concession to also fly Kristiansand - Stavanger - Bergen and Oslo - Ålesund (from 1958), both with monopolies. SAS was also allowed to fly Oslo - Trondheim and Oslo - Stavanger while given monopoly on flights from Trondheim to Northern Norway and Oslo - Bergen. This settlement was not changed until Braathens SAFE got consession to fly between Western Norway and Northern Norway from 1967.
On September 22 1958 the airline received its first Fokker F-27 Friendships, having replaced all the Heron aircraft by 1959. The airline also bought Douglas DC-6 aircraft for its charter operations. The charter market grew considerably in Norway during the 1960s and -70s, flying Norwegians to warm resorts in Southern Europe.
[edit] Into the Jet Age
Braathens ordered its first jet aircraft, Boeing 737-200 in 1965. Originally the airline had planned on ordering Boeing 737-100 aircraft, but instead ordered Fokker F-28. Both aircraft were delivered in 1969. The two 737s were first only used for charter, while the four F-28s were to replace the F-27s on the domestic routes.
Kristiansund's new airport, Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget, opened in 1970, with Braathens SAFE receiving the concession. Two years later, in 1972, Braathens also started flying to the new Molde Airport, Årø airport in the neighbour city Molde. Stavanger - Haugesund - Bergen was added in 1974. The same year Braathens SAFE started using an electronic reservation system.
In 1971 oil exploration in Norway started and Stavanger became the oil capital. Braathens SAFE started after a bit its own helicopter company, Braathens Helikopter, that they later sold to their main competitor, Helikopter Service.
In 1984 Braathens SAFE received two Boeing 767-200 aircraft with 242 seats, used both on domestic and charter operations. But the aircraft were too large, and were in 1986 sold along with the Fokker F-28s. For the first time Braathens SAFE had a unified fleet. At the same time the airline ordered 31 new Boeing 737-400 and -500 aircraft. The airline immediately sold all but two 737-200 aircraft and leased them back, as the used prices were quite good. The airline actually sold some of the aircraft delivered in 1986 for more than they paid for the new 737s. By 1994 all the old -200 aircraft were replaced.
[edit] Deregulation
The first steps of the deregulation of the Norwegian airline market came in 1987 when Braathens SAFE was allowed to fly Oslo - Bergen, Oslo - Trondheim - Bodø and Tromsø - Svalbard, while SAS was allowed full access to the routes Oslo - Stavanger and Oslo - Trondheim. In 1989 Braathens SAFE was once again allowed to fly international routes, with their opening of the Oslo - Billund route. Later international routes were Oslo / Bergen / Stavanger - Newcastle and Tromsø - Murmansk. Within two weeks in October 1992 both Dan-Air and Norway Airlines went bankrupt, and with 11 days notice Braathens SAFE started the route Oslo - London-Gatwick.
The same year, on April 1 the Norwegian domestic marked was deregulated, and any Norwegian or European airline was free to fly any domestic or international route in Norway. While SAS had been wanting this for some time, Braathens SAFEs management had tried to delay the deregulation until 1997, mainly because the company was in a temporary financial crisis because of massive borrowing activity to finance the new fleet of classic 737s.
To partially solve the financial crisis, the company decided to get more capital through a primary distribution. The airlines owner, the Braathen family owned shipping company Ludvig G. Braathens Rederi A/S, contributed with 100 million NOK while other investors invested 300 million NOK. The primary distribution gave the Braathens family an ownership of 68%. The company was then noted on Oslo Stock Exchange. At the same time the helikopter division Braathens Helikopter was sold to Helikopter Service for 225 million NOK.
After the deregulation, Braathens SAFE started flying from Oslo to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø in Northern Norway. SAS on their hand started flying between Bergen and Stavanger. On most routes there was an increased number of departures.
[edit] SAFE becomes Back
1997 marked a major change in strategy from the airline. The previous year, Braathens SAFE had bought the Swedish airline Transwede, and in 1998 Malmö Aviation. The three airlines were merged, and in 1997 the company change name and profile, dropping the SAFE and just calling itself Braathens in both countries. A new dark blue livery for the aircraft war launched, after the airline had been using more or less the same livery since the start in 1946. The Norwegian flag was removed from the tailplane, and replaced with the company's new logo, an abstract blob of grey.
The same year KLM Royal Dutch Airlines bought 30 percent of the shares from the Braathen family, and Braathen became part of the KLM-Northwest alliance, which also was to be joined by Alitalia, but who later decided not to. Braathens took over KLM's routes from Amsterdam to Norway and started feeding intercontinental passengers to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Northwest Airlines also started flying to Oslo from their hub at Minneapolis.
The most controversial bit of the new image was the concept of Braathens Best and Braathens Back. Up to this point neither Braathens nor SAS had operated with business classes on domestic flights in Norway. Braathens had always operated with discount fares, but with large limitations, often demanding the discount ticket purchaser to stay over a weekend. Now the airline wanted to put their discount passengers in a separate cabin at the back of the aircraft, in Braathens Back, while full-fare ticket holders could sit in the Braathens Best section. The Back section had less seat pitch and no frills. The consequence was that everyone started buying Back tickets, the curtain separating the two sections moved forward, with the Back sections packed and the Best sections with a few scattered passengers.
[edit] The fall of Braathens
The Best/Back strategy failed, and Braathens lost revenue from the new concept, losing low-fare passengers to SAS and former full fare customers converting to low-fare. With the introduction of Norway's first low-cost carrier, Color Air, a price war broke out between the three domestic airlines. Though Color Air only operated 13 months in 1998 and 1999, the fierce competition forcing them into bankruptcy. Also Braathens suffered, but survived. SAS lost money too, but its profitable operations internationally and domestically in Denmark and Sweden made them invincible.
Braathens never recovered from the price war, and the general decline of the airline market didn't help. In 2002 the SAS Group purchased the airline. From April 1, 2004 Scandinavian Airlines Norway and Braathens were merged into SAS Braathens. In response to this, Norwegian Air Shuttle, who previously had been operating Fokker 50 aircraft for Braathens on the west coast routes, decided to lease in Boeing 737-300 aircraft and start a low cost airline under the brand name Norwegian.
The Braathen family still owns the Swedish airline Malmö Aviation, which was separated from Braathens as a result of the takeover by SAS.
[edit] Fleet
The Braathens fleet consisted of the following aircraft before the merger:
[edit] Historic fleet
Historic fleet operated by Braathens SAFE (1946 - 2004)
| Model | Quantity | First in | Last out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas C-54 Skymaster | 6 | 1947 | 1966 |
| Douglas C-47 Dakota | 2 | 1947 | 1964 |
| De Havilland DH.114 Heron | 7 | 1952 | 1960 |
| Fokker F-27 Friendship | 8 | 1958 | 1977 |
| Douglas DC-6A/C | 1 | 1961 | 1965 |
| Douglas DC-6B | 7 | 1962 | 1973 |
| Cessna 206 Super Skywagon | 1 | 1964 | 1966 |
| Fokker F-28 Fellowship | 6 | 1969 | 1986 |
| Boeing 737-200 | 20 | 1969 | 1994 |
| Boeing 767-200 | 2 | 1984 | 1986 |
| Boeing 737-400 | 7 | 1989 | |
| Boeing 737-500 | 17 | 1990 | |
| Boeing 737-700 | 9 | 1998 | |
| Total | 93 |
The Boeing and Fokker aircraft were all named after Norwegian kings.
[edit] Accidents and incidents
On November 7, 1956 the Heron LN-SUR crashed in Hummelfjellet after it started to ice. The pilot was killed.
On the day before Christmas Eve December 23, 1972, Braathens suffered a fatal accident when Braathens Flight 239 crashed while approaching Fornebu airport, killing 40 people. It was then the worst airliner accident ever in Norway.
The 737-200 jet LN-SUG was hijacked on June 21, 1985 on its route from Trondheim to Oslo. This was the first hijacking of an aircraft in Norway, the hijacker did surrender for a plastic bag filled with beer cans.
[edit] Livery
Until 1997 all Braathen SAFE aircraft were white and/or metallic with red and blue striped along the side, with "Braathens S.A.F.E" above the windows and a Norwegian flag on the tailplane. After 1997 the airline changed its livery to white and blue with an abstract gray wing on the tailplane. Later the Norwegian flag reappeared.
[edit] External links
- SAS Braathens
- Braathens Fleet Detail
- Braathens History
- Braathens History (Norwegian article)
[edit] Other references
- Tjomsland, Audun and Wilsberg, Kjell (1999) Braathens SAFE 50 år: Mot alle odds, Oslo, ISBN 82-990400-1-9
| SAS Group, SAS AB | |
|---|---|
| Scandinavian Airlines Business | Scandinavian Airlines Danmark | Scandinavian Airlines Sverige | SAS Business Opportunities | SAS Braathens |
| Subsidiaries | airBaltic | Blue1 | Spanair | Widerøe |
| Affiliated | Air Greenland | Aerolineas de Baleares | bmi | Estonian Air | Skyways Express |
| Destinations | SAS Group destinations | Scandinavian Airlines destinations | SAS Braathens destinations | Spanair destinations | Widerøe destinations |
| Airline Support Business | SAS Cargo Group | SAS Media | SAS Flight Academy | SAS Technical Services | SAS Ground Services |
| Alliances | Star Alliance | WOW Alliance |
| History | DDL (1946) | DNL (1946) | SILA (1946) | ABA (1948) | Linjeflyg (1992) | Braathens (2001) |
