Norsk Air

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Norsk Air
IATA '	ICAO '	Callsign Norseman
Founded		1961
Hubs		Sandefjord Airport, Torp
Focus cities		Skien Airport, Geiteryggen
Fleet size		4
Destinations		5
Parent company		Widerøe
Headquarters		Sandefjord
Key people

Norsk Air was an airline located at Sandefjord Airport, Torp in Norway. It started operations in 1961 as Vestfoldfly and later changed name to Widerøe Norsk Air. In 1996 it was merged with Widerøe. The airline operated domestic and international destinations from Sandefjord with four Embraer 120 Brazilias.

[edit] History

In 1961 Øivind Skaunfelt started Vestfoldfly at Sandefjord Airport, Torp with one Cessna 172B flying the newspaper Verdens Gang on the route Oslo - Jarlsberg - Torp - Larvik - Skien. The airline then started an air school at Torp with a Cessna 15B. In 1962 the airline acquired a Piper PA-22 sea plane which did air taxi services. The airline continued through the 1960s operating taxi, newspaper and school flighs. The airline acquired various Cessna aircraft.

By 1967 the airline was providing a boarding school offering an eight month course with 250 flight hours leading to a B certificate. This certificate allows a pilot to fly commercial flights with aircraft up to 5 700 kg. In 1967 the school also started at Tønsberg Airport, Jarlsberg. In 1968 the airline changed its name to Norsk Flytjeneste (Norwegian Air Service). In addition the airline acquired two new Piper aircraft for crop dusting.

In the 1980s the Norwegian shipping owner Bjørn Bettum, who owned Kosmos. The airline changed name to Norsk Air and it acquired four Embraer 120 Brasilia aircraft and started scheduled flights from Torp to Bergen, Copenhagen, Stavanger and Trondheim. Later the airline also started flying from Skien Airport, Geiteryggen to Bergen and Stavanger.

In 1990 the regional airline Widerøe bought the airline and in 1991 changed the name to Widerøe Norsk Air. The airline then tried to fly from Sandefjord via Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik to London-Stansted, operated with a Fokker 50, but had to give up after a year. There was too much access capacity on the flights between Norway and London. In 1992 the airline also had to stop its flights to Skien because of new requirements that made the runway too short.

In 1996 the company was merged into its parent company Widerøe, who still operates flights from Sandefjord to Bergen, Copenhagen, Stavanger and Trondheim using de Havilland Dash 8 aircraft. The airline had had to give up its route from Sandefjord to Stockholm due to lack of passengers.

[edit] References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2006)