[5] In 1986, Bjørn and his brother Tore started Read-gruppen, that worked with seismology in the North Sea for the oil industry.

In 1993, following the bankruptcy of the airline Busy Bee, Kjos and several employees started Norwegian Air Shuttle, that used the newly available Fokker 50 aircraft to fly regional routes in Western Norway for Braathens SAFE, routes which had previously been served by Busy Bee.

[5] Kjos also owned[citation needed] part of Lufttransport, where he was chair until 2005, when it was sold to Norsk Helikopter.

With the 2004 take-over by SAS of Braathens, Norwegian Air Shuttle quickly became Norway's second largest airline.

[11] An avid outdoorsman, he enjoys hiking and sailing, and owns an apartment in Lofoten where he spends a lot of time, as well as a cabin in Hardangervidda.

In March 2015, Kjos debated wealth concentration with Thomas Piketty on Skavlan, a popular Norwegian-Swedish television talk show.