AB Aerotransport
| Aktiebolaget Aerotransport | |
|---|---|
| IATA code : | |
| ICAO code : | |
| Call sign : | |
| Founding: | 1924 |
| Operation stopped: | 1948 |
| Merged with: | Scandinavian Airlines System, SAS |
| Seat: |
Stockholm , Sweden
|
| Company form: | Aktiebolag |
| Fleet size: | |
| Aims: | National and international |
| Aktiebolaget Aerotransport merged with Scandinavian Airlines System, SAS in 1948 . The information in italics relates to the last status before the takeover. | |
AB Aerotransport (ABA for short) is a former Swedish airline . It has been part of the Scandinavian Airlines System, SAS , since 1948 .
history
founding
AB Aerotransport was founded in 1924 as Aktiebolaget Aerotransport by John Björk , Adrian and Carl Florman , Ernst Linder and Johann Nilsson . The main financiers and owners were the German Junkers factories , which owned 82 percent of the shares in 1925.
1920s
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The first flight took place on June 2, 1924 with a Junkers F 13 from Lindarängens Airport in Stockholm to Helsinki . The aircraft, registered as S-AAAC until 1929 , then SE-AAC , is now in the Tekniska museet (technical museum) in Stockholm. The flight schedule, with flights during the day from Stockholm to Helsinki and at night with mail flights on the route Stockholm - Malmö - Amsterdam - London , was continued until 1928 with four Junkers F 13 aircraft. In 1925, ABA began scheduled flights between Stockholm and Berlin in cooperation with Deutsche Luft Hansa .
AB Aerotransport was the first airline to take up flight operations with three-engine Junkers G 24 , which had been built in Sweden by AB Flygindustri . AB Aerotransport got the first two in March 1925. In the same month the Riksdag (the parliament of Sweden) granted the ABA the concessions for the flight routes Stockholm - Helsinki, Copenhagen - Gothenburg - Oslo and Malmö - Hamburg - Amsterdam . Further G 24 were partly financed by the newly founded AB Flygmateriel , from which AB Aerotransport then leased the machines.
1930s
AB AeroTransport bought several agriculture and in 1931 water aircraft types Junkers W 33 , W 34 , G 23 and G 24 . A three-engine Fokker F.XII was purchased for longer air travel .
In 1935 the Swedish state became the main owner of the ABA.
In 1938 a Junkers Ju 86 Z-7 was bought as a mail plane, which was christened Svalan . In 1940 the Ju 87 was confiscated by the Swedish Air Force . ABA received compensation for this. In the Air Force, the aircraft was renamed P9 .
In 1937, AB Aerotransport was the second European airline to buy a Douglas DC-3 after the Dutch KLM . This allowed flights from longer distances, for example to Moscow from 1939 . Since this year, the ABA aircraft have been labeled with SWEDISH AIR LINES . In addition to the DC-3, the ABA fleet then consisted of five Junkers Ju 52 / 3m , one Junkers F 13 (seaplane) and two Fokker F.XII .
1940s
During the Second World War , the AB Aerotransport tried to maintain its scheduled flight schedule. The flights to Moscow were discontinued from June 1941, those to Berlin shortly before the end of the National Socialist era .
In May 1942, regular transport flights to London were started. Two machines of the type DC-3 (SE-BAG and SE-BAF) were shot down in 1943 during such a transport flight. After a contractual agreement with the warring parties, air traffic to London was resumed, namely with aircraft with a large "SWEDEN" written on the fuselage and the national flag painted on the tail unit. Nonetheless, a third DC-3 was fired at, but luckily the machine was missed. It was therefore decided that from now on only Boeing B-17 aircraft would be used for transport flights to London .
The ABA expanded its European activities more and more. After the withdrawal of the German occupation, lines to Paris , Oslo and Prestwick ( Scotland ) were opened.
On June 30, 1948, the state-owned ABA merged with the private Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB (SILA for short) and continued the aviation business under the previous name of AB Aerotransport. The ABA was thus incorporated into the Scandinavian Airlines founded in 1946 by the airlines SILA (Sweden), Det Danske Luftfartselskab (DDL) ( Denmark ) and Det Norske Luftfartselskap ( Norway ) .
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS for short) rose to become one of the leading airlines in Europe and today consist of two Norwegian and Danish and three Swedish shares.
Incidents
- On October 26, 1947, the Douglas DC-4 Sunnan of AB Aerotransport (SE-BBG) flew into the western flank of Mount Hymettos near Athens. The machine was on a flight from Istanbul via Athens, Rome, Geneva and Copenhagen to Stockholm and was approaching the then Athens-Hassani airport. All 44 people on board were killed, 8 crew members and 36 passengers.
Others
One of the first pilots of the airline was the later commander of the German air force Hermann Göring .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Number of Junkers F13. Retrieved March 19, 2011 .
- ↑ Section The Junkers G24, document on the number, production facilities of the G24s and the flight routes of the ABA (English). Retrieved March 19, 2011 .
- ↑ Åke Hall: Luftens Vikingar - en bok om SAS alla flygplan . Air Historic Research, Nässjö 2002, ISBN 91-973892-3-4 , p. 11. (Swedish) .
- ^ Accident report DC-4 SE-BBG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 3, 2017.
