Norsk Air

Widerøe Norsk Air

IATA ICAO Callsign Norseman
Founded
Hubs	Sandefjord Airport, Torp
Fleet size	4 (1996)
Destinations	5 (1996)
Parent company	Widerøe
Headquarters	Sandefjord, Norway

Widerøe Norsk Air AS, formerly known as Vestfoldfly, Norsk Flytjeneste AS and Norsk Air AS, was a Norwegian airline based at Sandefjord Airport, Torp. The airline flew scheduled flights to Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Copenhagen, as well as other places for shorter times.

The company was founded in Øyvind Skaunfelt as a flying school and also did some other commercial activities. In the early 1970s the airline bought three Douglas DC-6s and started international charter. It transformed into a scheduled airline in 1982, using Beechcraft 200 King Airs. It was in 1985 bought by Kosmos and renamed Norsk Air and bought four Embraer EMB 120 Brasilias. In 1989, the airline was bought by Widerøe and changed its name to Widerøe Norsk Air. It merged into Widerøe in 1996.

History

Vestfoldfly

Vestfoldfly was established in 1961 by Øyvind Skaunfelt. He had been working at Thor Solberg's aviation school at Tønsberg Airport, Jarlsberg, and Solberg offered Skaunfelt to purchase his school and airplanes when he retired. Two years earlier, Sandefjord Airport, Torp had opened a civilian sector and Skaunfelt decided to establish his company there. In May, he received government permission for commercial flying. He started a newspaper route to Oslo Airport, Fornebu, and could also take three passengers on it using a single-engined Cessna. It continued onwards from Sandefjord to Tønsberg, Larvik and at Skien Airport, Geiteryggen using a Cessna 172B.^{[citation needed]} Vestfoldfly also started offering scenic trips and charter. During the summer, Vestfoldfly also flew seaplanes south along the coast to Kragerø, Risør and Arendal, using a Piper PA-22.^{[citation needed]} Other activities involved crop dusting of forest for Felleskjøpet. Norsk Flytjeneste also provided a target service for the military. Four aircraft were permanently used to tow a target about 1,000 to 2,000 metres (3,300 to 6,600 ft) behind the aircraft, and military personnel would practice shooting at the target.^[1]

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 addition the airline acquired two new Cessna 188A aircraft for aerial application, especially forestry work in Norway. In 1972 these two aircraft were sold in England.

During the 1960s, Vestfoldfly never received a concession for a regular, scheduled flight from Sandefjord to Oslo. The reason was that the Skien-based Fjellfly held the concession for the routes from Oslo to Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Skien. The airline never used its landing rights at Sandefjord, but nevertheless still hindered Vestfoldfly from starting a competing route. Skaunfelt eventually split his activity in two, demerging the aviation school and renaming it Den Norske Luftfartsskole, that continued to operate until 1999. The other activity was renamed Norsk Flytjeneste. In 1969, Norsk Flytjeneste and Jotun, a large local industrial company, established Penguin Air Service, where Norsk Flytjeneste owned 25% of the shares. The company bought a Piper PA-31 Navajo and started charter services for Jotun. In 1975, Bugge Supplyship also joined the joint venture and a second aircraft was bought. The main transport was to the oil industry in Stavanger.^[2]

Norsk Flytjeneste

Beechcraft Super King Air in 1985

In 1972, Norsk Flytjeneste purchased two Douglas DC-6Bs from Braathens SAFE and leased on from Sterling Airways. They were used for domestic and international charter. The largest contract was from the Norwegian Church Aid, that contracted Norsk Flytjeneste to fly aid to Bangladesh. After a year, the three DC-6s were sold, due to the airline not making money on them, primarily due to high operating costs. The company followed up with purchasing a ten-seat Cessna Citation business jet that they offered in the charter market. But the market was not large enough, and the jet was sold.^[3]

The main market for the charter services was Stavanger Airport, Sola, mainly due to the oil industry needing to send personnel there. By the 1980s, Norsk Air had up to four daily round trips between the two cities. In 1983, the airline received concession to start a regular scheduled service to Stavanger. A ten-seat Beechcraft Super King Air was bought and services started in 12 January 1984. Services to Bergen Airport, Flesland started on 10 July. Soon there were four daily round trips to both cities, supplemented by charter trips operated by Penguin. Starting on 26 March 1984, Norsk Flytjeneste received competition on the routes from Sandefjord to Bergen and Stavanger, when Busy Bee, on contract with Braathens SAFE, started flights using Fokker F27s. However, they operated only one round trip, with the same aircraft serving Sandefjord–Stavanger–Haugesund–Bergen.^[4]

In 1984, Norsk Flytjenesete started negotiations with Sandefjord-based conglomerate Kosmos, who wanted to invest in a local airline. Kosmos had decided to start a diversification strategy to spread their risk into new areas. Norsk Flytjeneste was at the time not making money on its routes, but Kosmos was willing to take the loss as an investment. On 15 April 1985, the company was sold to Kosmos. At the time of the take-over, Norsk Flytjeneste had four Cessna 310s and one Piper Navajo. The airline's Beechcraft 200 and C90 King Airs were already owned by Kosmos. The company was changed from a sole propriatoriship to a limited company and named Norsk FLytjeneste. Kjell Riege from Kosmos was appointed managing director. Tor Lundstrøm continued as chief pilot.^[5]

Norsk Air

Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia at Aberdeen Airport in 1989

On 30 July 1985, Norsk Flytjeneste opened their first international route, to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark. The concessions had a limitation on not using aircraft with more than ten seats. In 1985, this limitation was lifted.^[6] Under Kosmos' management, Norsk Flytjeneste started an aggressive expansion. Applications for concessions from Sandefjord to Gothenburg in Sweden, as well as from Oslo via Hamar and Røros to Trondheim were made. The company also joined the joint venture Commuterservice along with other Norwegian regional airlines. The company also needed larger aircraft, and the airline evaluated several types, including the Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, the Saab 340 and the Fokker F27. The company chose to order four Brasilias. During the negotiations with Embraer the company realized that 'Norsk Flytjeneste' was a difficult name for foreigners, since the Brazilians could not pronounce 'Flytjeneste'. When the new aircraft were delivered, the airline was rebranded Norsk Air.^[7]

Norsk Air was the second airline in Europe to oder the Brasilia, after Air Excel. Three were financed with debt from Banco de Brasil, with one being leased. With the introduction of the Brasilias, the airline also started a route from Sandefjord to Trondheim Airport, Værnes in 1986. From 1985 to 1986, the airline's costs doubled, but not the income. In 1987, Terje Røsjode, former bank chief for Christiania Bank in Sandefjord, took over as managing director. The Brasilias had state-of-art technology, and although airlines purchase new aircraft to reduce their maintenance costs, this was not possible for Norsk Air because they did not have sufficient competence to maintain the aircraft. In particular, they lacked sufficient electronic expertise, due to the increase of electronic components in the aircraft.^[8] All the other aircraft were sold.^[9]

In 1986, the company established a duty free at Torp.^[10] By 1987, Norsk Air was losing NOK 20 million per year. The company established a route from Sandefjord to Gothenburg and to London Stansted Airport. Neither were profitable, and were quickly terminated.^[11] To develop the company, Kosmos and Norsk Air bought the Kirkenes-based airline Norving, that also operated flights from Skien Airport, Geiteryggen, about an hours drive from Sandefjord, to Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger. Norving had seven types of aircraft, but was losing large sums of money, although the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications covered their losses on some state-subsidized regional routes. The purchase of Norving caused a conflict with the locals who did not like the company being bought. The operations from Skien were merged into Norsk Air, while the rest of Norving was sold. It went bankrupt in 1993. Norsk Air wanted to also purchase Widerøe, but none fo the large owners wanted to sell.^[12]

Widerøe Norsk Air

On 21 October 1988, CEO Bjørn Bettum and Chari Otto Grieg Tidemand in Kosmos were fired. The Skaugen Group bought the company, and decided to integrated the shipping and oil-related activities into their group. All other investments, including Norsk Air, were to be sold or closed.^[13] At the time, Norsk Air had 140 employees.^[14] Røsjodet took contact with Bård Mikkelsen, who was CEO of Widerøe, to try to convince them to purchase Norsk Air. Widerøe was a that time solely occupied with flying on the subsidized regional routes. The company wanted to have some non-subsidized routes to better benchmark its operations. The two largest owners, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and Braathens SAFE did not want to purchase Norsk Air, but the third-largest owner, Fred. Olsen & Co. liked the idea, and bought SAS' and Braathens SAFE's 62.3% stake in Widerøe to make the deal possible. Other possible purchasers were Sterling Airlines, Partnair and Jan Einar Johansen, former owner of Scandi Line.^[15]

By 1989, the airline had 156 employees and 150,000 annual passengers. On 9 February 1989, the board decided to start the termination process if a sale was not made. The employees agreed to cut their wages 10% and not take sick days during the sales process. One of the main difficulties in the sales process was that Widerøe could not afford to purchase Norsk Air's hangar at the airport. Widerøe wanted to continue operations at both Torp and Geiteryggen for a year to see where to establish its base. In fear that the airline would move to Skien, the municipalities of Sandefjord and Stokke, who owned the majority of the airport, agreed to purchase the hangar, that had been built for NOK 20 million in 1987, for NOK 11.5 million. Half the hangar would be rented to Widerøe for NOK 500,000 per year. This was insufficient to cover the NOK 1.2 million in annual interest costs.^[16]

Widerøe took over Norsk Air on 1 May 1989 free of charge, and changed the company's name to Widerøe Norsk Air. The company was kept as a subsidiary to avoid cross-subsidization of the subsidized routes. Widerøe started negotiations with Busy Bee, and agreed to lease the Fokker 50 used by Busy Bee to Sandefjord, in exchange for Busy Bee terminating the route in 1990. Widerøe Norsk Air also decided that it was not profitable to fly from both Skien and Sandefjord, and terminated all Skien services. Starting on 28 October 1991, the airline also started a route from Sandefjord via Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik to London. This route was terminated one year later.^[17] In 1993, Widerøe sold its Fokker 50 to Norwegian Air Shuttle.^[18] On 1 May 1996, Widerøe Norsk Air was merged with Widerøe.^[19]

Destinations

†

Hub

City	Country	IATA	ICAO	Airport	Begin	End	Ref
Bergen	Norway	BGO	ENBR	Bergen Airport, Flesland	1984	1996	[4]
Copenhagen	Denmark	CPH	EKCH	Copenhagen Airport	1985	1996	[6]
Gothenburg	Sweden	GOT	ESGG	Gothenburg-Landvetter Airport	1987	1987	[11]
Kristiansand	Norway	KRS	ENCN	Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik	1991	1992	[11]
London	United Kingdom	STN	EGSS	London Stansted Airport	1987	1992	[11]
Sandefjord	Norway	TRF	ENTO	Sandefjord Airport, Torp†	1983	1996	[4]
Skien	Norway	SKE	ENSN	Skien Airport, Geiteryggen†	1987	1991	[16]
Stavanger	Norway	SVG	ENZV	Stavanger Airport, Sola	1983	1996	[4]
Trondheim	Norway	TRD	ENVA	Trondheim Airport, Værnes	1986	2004	[8]

References

Notes

1. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 87–93
2. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 88–92
3. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 95–96
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Tjomsland, 2005: 102–105
5. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 105–107
6. ^ ^{a b} Tjomsland, 2005: 102–103
7. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 110–112
8. ^ ^{a b} Tjomsland, 2005: 112–114
9. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 150
10. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 251
11. ^ ^{a b c d} Tjomsland, 2005: 128–130
12. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 143–144
13. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 128–132
14. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 145
15. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 149–150
16. ^ ^{a b} Tjomsland, 2005: 150–159
17. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 177–181
18. ^ Airfleets. "Fokker 50 in Wideroe history" (in Norwegian). http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/Wideroe-history-f50.htm. Retrieved 24 September 2009. 
19. ^ Tjomsland, 2005: 186

Bibliography

• Tjomsland, Audun (2005) (in Norwegian). Høyt spill om Torp. Sandefjord: Tjomsland Media. ISBN 82-997212-0-2.