Norwegian Air Lines
It became one of the three founders of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and became one of its three holding companies from 1951, with a 28% stake and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
In 1935, DNL was close to starting transatlantic flights in cooperation with Pan Am, but services never commenced despite purchasing a Sikorsky S-43.
From then, DNL started international flights using Douglas DC-3 and introduced Short Sandringhams on domestic sea routes.
Along with Aerotransport of Sweden and Det Danske Luftfartselskab of Denmark, DNL founded Overseas Scandinavian Airlines System to pool transatlantic flights.
On 18 June, the share capital was raised to NOK 50,000, including a 20% stake owned by the Municipality of Oslo and Norway Post.
At the time, the only service to Norway was Lufthansa, who operated from Gressholmen Airport in Oslo via Gothenburg and Copenhagen to Warnemünde in Germany.
[5] Riiser-Larsen went on a national lecture tour to gain support for civil aviation from local politicians and businesspeople.
He also negotiated agreements to pool flights to Sweden with Aerotransport, to Denmark with Det Danske Luftfartselskab, to Germany with Lufthansa and to the United Kingdom with Imperial Airways.
[9] DNL bought 51% of Widerøe, and the airline continued without scheduled services, operating air taxi, school and general aviation, plus a limited number of post routes in Northern Norway.
Travel time from Oslo to Bergen was four and a half hours, with intermediate stops in Moss, Arendal, Kristiansand, Stavanger and Haugesund.
DNL argued that Norway's location made it an ideal base for the European flights to North America.
The contract was signed in March and DNL bought a Sikorsky S-43 flying boat, registered as LN-DAG and christened Valkyrien.
Part of the reason for the route was that transport to the Soviet Union could not go via Germany, where the only contemporary international flights from Oslo went.
In cooperation with DDL, Lufthansa and ABA, DNL entered the pool that flew the route from Oslo via Gothenburg to Copenhagen.
[14] On 2 March 1938, the board of DNL decided to sell Valkyrien to Chargeurs Reunis and abandon plans for intercontinental traffic.
Following this, the Nordic airlines started negotiating the possibility of cooperating on their own transatlantic route via Iceland and Newfoundland.
After the break-out of World War II, the United States had become more interested in a northern transatlantic route, so it could reach the neutral Scandinavian countries.
The Norwegian authorities in exile were also distrustful of DNL, because the airline had taken initiative to operate a route, essentially helping the German forces.
[19][20] After the liberation of Norway on 8 May 1945, the Norwegian Civil Aviation Board started to initiate operations of civilian airliners.
For 1945, the task was given to the Royal Norwegian Air Force, who used surplus aircraft to operate a limited number of routes.
They came with their recommendation on 28 November 1945, which favored a single, privately owned Norwegian flag carrier, with a broad ownership, who would receive a concession for the operation of all domestic and international routes.
It discussed several options, such as creating a government agency or a state-owned limited company, permitting several airlines to operate the different routes, and looked at the possibility that the shipowners were purchasing DNL shares to hinder competition with their shipping lines.
[23] In February, DNL procured a four-story building in Oslo City Center, and continued and a hangar at Fornebu.
The company started to acquire offices in the various cities it was going to serve; within a few weeks of parliament's decision, DNL had 300 employees, and by June it reached 1,500, with an average age of 27 years.
[25] Det Norske Luftfartselskap A/S was founded on 2 July 1946; it took the name, part of the personnel and the agreements and arrangements DNL had.
On 16 July, the board decided to purchase three Sandringham Mark VI flying boats from Short Brothers.
Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik had started services from Stockholm to New York, but a consortium was discussed whereby the three airlines would pool their operations to create economy of scale.
From 14 January 1949, Braathens SAFE received a five-year concession to operate a route from Oslo to various cities in Asia.
DNL lost NOK 17 million in 1948, in part because it had the least efficient aircraft and received no compensation for its higher operating costs.
Instead of coordinating resources, ESAS had become another administrative level; there were also concerns from Norway that administrative and operative staff were leaking to the ESAS head office in Copenhagen and the OSAS head office in Stockholm, without any similar build-up of competence in Norway.
