In 1913, he moved to Cardiff in Wales, where he worked for Vivyan Kelly & Company as a head of department.

He planned to travel to Argentina and China, each for two years, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 forced Braathen to return home, where he served as a conscript in the Norwegian Royal Guards.

[2] Braathen has stated that the idea of creating an airline occurred to him in 1936, when the ship Brajara had engine trouble while en route to Japan.

In 1937, Braathen travelled to the United States to study aviation, and he looked both at flying boats and took a Douglas DC-3 operated by Trans World Airlines from Kansas City to San Francisco.

In 1938, Braathen sent an application to the Norwegian authorities to receive concession and subsidies to start a route from Oslo to New York City.