Private company

Det Danske Luftfartselskab

DDL-Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, Danish Air Lines in English language, was Denmark's national airline from 1918 until it merged to create Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in 1950.1

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

1918Founded1
  • HeadquartersCopenhagen1

DDL-Det Danske Luftfartselskab A/S, Danish Air Lines in English language, was Denmark's national airline from 1918 until it merged to create Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) in 1950. DDL was established on 29 October 1918 and started irregular operations on 31 October 1919. The company was legally registered on 19 March 1920 and started its first scheduled route on the following 7 August.2

How it started

History

In 1920, the first airplane, a Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen 49c, was acquired from the Deutsche Luft-Reederei (D.L.R.) in Germany. The airplane, with the previous German navy registration 1364, was almost new, and had been refitted for passenger transport before being delivered from Germany. It received the Danish registration letters T-DABA, and was used for the Copenhagen-Malmö-Warnemünde route in cooperation with the D.L.R. This plane was later returned to Germany, apparently because the transfer was not in accordance with the Versailles treaty.

In 1921 another F.F.49c plane from D.L.R. was acquired as a replacement for the first, with the previous German navy registration 3078. For unknown reasons this airplane used the same Danish registration T-DABA.

In the early 1920s, the airline relied on four chartered Fokker-Grulich F.III aircraft, but also Dornier Komet,

Junkers F.13s and the Airco DH.9.

In 1926 the first of a total of four Farman F.121 Jabiru 4-engined commercial airliners, seating nine passengers, were acquired. It was registered as T-DOXB, and was used on the Copenhagen to Amsterdam line. Amsterdam was a hub with connections to London and Paris. The aircraft were withdrawn from use in 1928 and 1929, and broken up by 1931.

From Wikipedia’s article on Det Danske Luftfartselskab, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1951Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1918Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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