The story
Scandinavian Airlines
Scandinavian Airlines was founded on 1 August 1946 when the flag carriers of Denmark, Sweden and Norway formed a partnership to handle intercontinental traffic to Scandinavia. Operations started on 17 September 1946. Det Norske Luftfartselskab (DNL) is the former Norwegian flag carrier which was founded in 1927. The companies embarked on coordination of European operations in 1948 and finally merged to form the current SAS Consortium in 1951. Upon foundation the airline was divided between SAS Danmark (28.6%), SAS Norge (28.6%) and SAS Sweden (42.8%), all owned 50% by private investors and 50% by their respective governments. SAS gradually acquired control of the domestic markets in all three countries by acquiring full or partial control of several local airlines. The ownership structure of SAS was changed in June 2001, with a holding company being created in which the holdings of the governments changed to Sweden (21.4%), Norway (14.3%) and Denmark (14.3%) and the remaining 50% publicly held and traded on the stock market.
Braathens
Braathens was founded on March 26, 1946. For many years, Braathens was known as Braathens S.A.F.E, the latter part being an acronym standing for South American and Far East, for the destinations Braathens originally served. The company was founded by Norwegian ship owner Ludvig G. Braathen, with the intention of serving his ships in other parts of the world. In 2001 Braathens formed an alliance with KLM and Northwest Airlines. Alitalia was supposed to also join that alliance, but later decided not to. Braathens also dropped the SAFE from their name, and the company was known as Braathens until 2004. In 2001, after tough economic times, Braathens was bought by the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), although they were able to keep operating under their name until SAS Braathens became operative 1 April 2005.
SAS Braathens
The first months of 2006 were marked by conflict, and ill pilots caused several flights to be cancelled. Negotiations between cabin personnel and management failed on 6 April, leading to a strike grounding most of the flights, though a deal between management and the unions ended the strike on April 8.
By 2007 the airline was one of Norway's most prominent companies, but the lack of reliability caused by the number of cancelled and delayed flights has put the airline at the bottom of 140 Norwegian companies ranked by consumer confidence. The April 2006 strike benefitted SAS Braathens' main competitor, Norwegian Air Shuttle.
SAS Braathens CEO Petter Jansen was forced to leave office in June 2006 after disputes with the SAS management in Stockholm, causing much controversy and debate in Norway, since Jansen was leading the only national branch of Scandinavian Airlines that made a profit.
However, in 2007 the airline was rebranded as Scandinavian Airlines itself.
From Wikipedia’s article on SAS Braathens, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4