Braathens
Braathens ASA, until 1997 Braathens South American & Far East Airtransport A/S and trading as Braathens SAFE, was a Norwegian airline which operated from 1946 until it merged with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in 2004 to become SAS Braathens. For most of its history, Braathens was the largest domestic airline in Norway, but did not operate an international network for many years. Its main hubs were Oslo Airport, Fornebu and later Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, and briefly Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. The airline operated 118 aircraft of 15 models, mostly Boeing 737 variants. Braathens served 53 airports and 50 cities with scheduled services through its history. The airline was founded in 1946 by Ludvig G. Braathen and originally used a fleet of Douglas DC-4 aircraft on routes to the Far East and South Africa. From 1954 the airline was forced to operate all its scheduled flights domestically, where it used de Havilland Herons. Braathens SAFE retained an international charter service using the DC-3 and DC-6. As new domestic airports were built, Braathens SAFE and SAS were awarded each their share of monopoly route concessions. The Fokker F-27 was introduced in 1958, but was phased out with the delivery of the Fokker F-28 and Boeing 737-200 jets from 1969. The last F-27 was phased out in 1975. After a two-year use of Boeing 767 aircraft, Braathens operated an all-Boeing 737 fleet from 1986. Increased domestic competition on routes started from 1987, along with Braathens SAFE again starting international routes. By 1994 the fleet had been replaced with Boeing 737-400 and -500 and domestic deregulation of the airline market was introduced. Braathens followed up by listing itself on the Oslo Stock Exchange, joining an alliance with Dutch airline KLM and expanding its operations to Sweden through purchasing Transwede and Malmö Aviation. The 1998 opening of Gardermoen resulted in an intense price war with SAS and Color Air, from which Braathens never recovered financially. Braathens was controlled by Braganza until 2001, when it was sold to the SAS Group. Braathens merged with SAS Norway on 1 May 2004. History Far East Braathens South American & Far East Airtransport A/S was founded on 26 March 1946 by Ludvig G. Braathen through his shipping company Ludvig G. Braathens Rederi and its holding company Braganza. Braathens had made good money during World War II with the participation in the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission. His initial intentions were to fly crew and supplies to his and others ships throughout the world—primarily in the Far East. Braathen traveled to the United States, where he bought several used 44-passenger Douglas C-54 (DC-4) aircraft from the United States Air Force. Twenty pilots were recruited and sent to Fort Worth for certification. The first plane, LN-HAV Norse Explorer, landed at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen on 26 December 1946. The first service run from Oslo to Cairo via Copenhagen and Paris on 30 January 1947. Various charter services were provided, such as evacuating French and British personnel prior to the creation of Israel. The first Braathens