SAS Norge
| SAS Norge Braathens / SAS Braathens |
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| IATA code : | BU |
| ICAO code : | BRA |
| Call sign : | BRAATHENS |
| Founding: | 1946 |
| Operation stopped: | 2009 |
| Seat: |
Oslo , Norway
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| Turnstile : | |
| Home airport : | Oslo-Gardermoen |
| Alliance : | Star Alliance |
| Frequent Flyer Program : | Wings |
| Fleet size: | 26 (2004) |
| Aims: | national |
| SAS Norge Braathens / SAS Braathens ceased operations in 2009. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. |
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SAS Norge (originally Braathens SAFE , then Braathens and SAS Braathens ) was a Norwegian airline based in Oslo and based at Oslo-Gardermoen Airport . It had been a subsidiary of SAS Scandinavian Airlines since 2002 and was fully integrated into it in 2009.
history
Foundation and first years
The company was founded on March 26, 1946 by Norwegian ship owner Ludvig G. Braathen as Braathens SAFE (short for Braathens South American and Far East Air Transport A / S ) with the intention of supplying his ships in other parts of the world and began operating charter flights to the Far East and South America. Surplus Douglas DC-4s from the US Air Force were used . The first take-off was on January 30, 1947.
In the past you only flew during the day with hotel stays at the stopovers. The route was Oslo - ( Stavanger ) - Amsterdam - Marseille - Cairo - Basra - Karachi - Calcutta - Bangkok - Hong Kong . At that time there was no other European company that offered flights to the Far East, with the exception of BOAC , which operated with seaplanes. In 1947, Braathens acquired the SAFE Douglas DC-3 . Between 1947 and 1948, the company made a total of 75 flights to Hong Kong.
The airline Det Danske Luftfartselskab (a forerunner of today's SAS Scandinavian Airlines ) used to have a monopoly on international scheduled flights from Norway. The Norwegian authorities claimed that due to the frequent operation of the East Asia flight, it could be classified as a scheduled flight and forced the company to apply for a concession, which was then also granted for five years.
Braathens also flew to Venezuela and Panama in 1948 , but could not get the necessary permits, and so there was never a regular connection.
The monopoly was transferred to SAS in 1951. An agreement with the Icelandic company Loftleidir enabled Braathens to fly with a Douglas DC-4 via Iceland to the USA for ten years . However, this concession was not extended at the end of the contract.
Focus on the domestic in the 1950s
After Braathens could no longer operate foreign destinations, the company concentrated entirely on domestic flight connections, but had to limit itself to routes that were not operated by the monopoly SAS. The first domestic route in 1954 was Oslo - Tønsberg - Stavanger with machines of the type De Havilland DH.114 Heron . In the following years, flights to Trondheim , Røros and Kristiansand were added to the program. The network has now been continuously expanded.
On September 22, 1958, the company received its first of several Fokker F-27 Friendships , which should replace the De Havilland Herons. Douglas DC-6 was procured for charter operations . The growing tourism in the 1960s and 1970s made charter flights to southern Europe possible.
Entry into the jet age
Braathens ordered its first jet aircraft , two Boeing 737-200s , in 1965, as well as four Fokker F28s . The two Boeing 737s were used for charter flights, the Fokker for domestic flights. The flight operations were u. a. expanded to the newly built Kristiansund Airport .
With the start of oil production in Norway in 1971, the company also started a helicopter operation. In 1974 an electronic reservation system was introduced.
In 1977 the company ceded its last propeller aircraft of the type Fokker F-27 to Air Executive Norway , which then carried out the scheduled services on the less frequented routes for Braathens SAFE .
The Boeing 767-200s procured in 1984 turned out to be too big with 242 seats and were sold again in 1986 together with the Fokker F28. For this purpose, another Boeing 737-400 and -500 were ordered, but they were immediately sold and leased back . By selling the Boeing 737 (apart from two, which were only replaced in 1994), the company got more money than it had paid for the new purchase at the time.
Deregulation and expansion in the 1990s
After initial approaches in 1987, the Norwegian airline market was opened on April 1, 1992. While SAS welcomed this, the moment was not propitious for Braathens. She was in a temporary financial crisis that she had gotten herself into with new 737s. Cash injections from the family owned Braathens shipping company and other investors brought in a total of NOK 400 million . The sale of the helicopter division brought in another 225 million NOK.
After deregulation, SAS and Braathens began to compete with each other on their respective lineages.
In 1996 Braathens SAFE bought the Swedish company Transwede and in 1998 Malmö Aviation . The three companies merged on January 1, 1999 under the common name Braathens (now without SAFE ). The Norwegian national flag was also replaced by a company logo.
In the same year KLM bought 30 percent of the company shares and Braathens became part of the then alliance of KLM with Northwest Airlines . Braathens took over the shuttle service between Norway and the KLM hub at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol .
In 1998, Braathens moved from Oslo-Fornebu Airport , which was closed, to the new Oslo-Gardermoen Airport .
The new two-tier concept from Braathens, called Best / Back, was controversial . Until then, only one seat class was known for domestic flights. Braathens always offered lower prices, but these were linked to tight conditions (e.g. weekend overnight stays). Now Braathens put the "cheap passengers" in the back and the full-paying passengers in the front of the plane; The seat spacing was narrower in the back and there was no free service. However, this meant that most people only bought cheap seats and the curtain between the classes moved further and further forward.
Downfall and takeover by SAS
The best / back strategy failed. Braathens therefore made losses and lost passengers to its competitor SAS. The former fully paying passengers got cheap back tickets. A price war broke out with Color Air , Norway's first low-cost airline . Color Air went to just 13 months in the bankruptcy . Braathens also suffered from price pressure, but was initially able to survive. SAS lost money too, but was able to compensate for this with its international business and national business in Denmark and Sweden .
Braathens never recovered from this price war, the general decline in the aviation market contributed to it. In 2002, SAS Scandinavian Airlines bought the company, but without Malmö Aviation , which is still owned by the Braathens family today. On April 1, 2004, Scandinavian Airlines Norway and Braathens were merged to form SAS Braathens . Norwegian Air Shuttle , which had previously operated flights for Braathens, decided to set up its own low-cost airline under the label norwegian.com , which is still in existence today.
On June 1, 2007, the Braathens brand was finally dropped, and the company has since operated under the name SAS Norge . In October 2009 the company was finally fully integrated (including fleet and branding) into the parent company SAS Scandinavian Airlines and dissolved.
fleet
In October 2009 the last SAS Norge aircraft, several Boeing 737s , were handed over to the parent company SAS Scandinavian Airlines . Since it was founded in 1946, the company has operated a variety of different aircraft types from several generations:
| Aircraft type | number | from | to | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas DC-3 / C-47 | 2 | 1947 | 1964 | |
| Douglas C-54 Skymaster | 6th | 1947 | 1966 | |
| De Havilland DH.114 Heron | 7th | 1952 | 1960 | |
| Fokker F-27 Friendship | 8th | 1958 | 1977 | |
| Douglas DC-6A / C | 1 | 1961 | 1965 | |
| Douglas DC-6B | 7th | 1962 | 1973 | |
| Cessna 206 Super Skywagon | 1 | 1964 | 1966 | |
| Fokker F28 Fellowship | 6th | 1969 | 1986 | |
| Boeing 737-200 | 20th | 1969 | 1994 | |
| Boeing 767-200 | 2 | 1984 | 1986 | |
| Boeing 737-400 | 7th | 1989 | 2009 | were handed over to SAS |
| Boeing 737-500 | 17th | 1990 | 2009 | were handed over to SAS |
| Boeing 737-700 | 9 | 1998 | 2009 | were handed over to SAS |
| total | 93 |
The company's Boeing and Fokker were named after Norwegian kings .
Incidents
Between 1956 and the cessation of operations in 2009, Braathens SAFE suffered two total aircraft losses. A total of 42 people were killed in both.
- On November 7, 1956, a De Havilland Heron 2B of the Braathens SAFE ( aircraft registration LN-SUR ) crashed on the Hummelfjell mountain in Tolga, Norway during heavy snowfall . The pilot and one passenger were killed, while the remaining pilot and passengers survived. The accident in Hummelfjell was Braathens SAFE's first fatal accident. The cause of the accident was unusually heavy icing and a strong air flow downwards.
- On December 23, 1972, a Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship of Braathens SAFE (now SAS Norge) (LN-SUY) was flown into a mountain while approaching Oslo-Fornebu Airport (CFIT, Controlled flight into terrain ). In the accident 40 of the 45 occupants were killed (all 3 crew members and 37 passengers). During the approach, the master had a private radio conversation with the air traffic controller about Christmas topics. The machine got more than 7 kilometers off course and 500 meters under the glide path until it finally hit the forest 16 kilometers west of the airport (see also Braathens SAFE flight 239 ) .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b ch-aviation.ch: Fleet of the SAS Norge ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. January 5, 2010; Note the message text there
- ↑ a b c ch-aviation.ch - Former fleet of SAS Norge as part of the fleet of SAS (English) accessed on October 16, 2011
- ↑ Accident statistics Braathens SAFE , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 13, 2019.
- ↑ Accident report Heron 2B LN-SUR , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 6, 2020.
- ↑ Accident report F28-1000 LN-SUY , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 13, 2019.
