Braathens Helikopter

It used a fleet of seven Aérospatiale Super Pumas to serve offshore oil platforms in the North Sea.

The customers were Amoco, BP, Norsk Hydro, Phillips Petroleum and Statoil, serving their oil fields Ekofisk, Oseberg, Gullfaks, Veslefrikk, Valhall, Ula and Gyda.

[1] The airline served seven oil fields: Ekofisk, Gullfaks, Gyda, Oseberg, Ula, Valhall, Veslefrikk.

[6] As a protest, the incumbent Helikopter Service applied for the airline routes that Braathens SAFE operated from Stavanger, but this application was rejected.

[2] Prior to this, Helikopter Service had held a monopoly on flights for the oil companies to their offshore installations.

[6] For the start of operations, Braathens Helikopter hired 22 pilots, most of them previously working for the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

[11] In June, Braathens Helikopter signed a three-year agreement, with an option for a two-year extension, with Amoco for flights from Stavanger to Valhall.

[5] On 10 September, Braathens Helikopter was awarded the contract with British Petroleum for flights from Stavanger to Ula and Gyda.

This meant that companies like Bristow Helicopters, KLM and Maersk Air could start operation in Norway.

However, the Ministry of Transport and Communications stated that the authority could not hinder the merger, because, by the time new contracts were awarded in 1995, helicopter operators from foreign countries would also be allowed to bid.

[12] They were immediately sold,[16] giving Ludvig G. Braathens Rederi a NOK 170 million profit on the five-year venture.