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Braathens SAFE's domestic market was deregulated on 1 April 1994. Since then, any airline within the European Economic Area is free to operate any domestic or international route. Braathens rejected a proposal from the main competitor Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) for a merger; instead the helicopter division was sold and the company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. New routes were opened from Oslo Airport, Fornebu to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø, but the routes from Bergen to these cities were terminated. International routes to Rome, Nice and Jersey were introduced. In 1996, Braathens SAFE bought Sweden's second-largest airline, Transwede, and started flying on the Oslo–Stockholm route. The following year, Transwede, with its five domestic routes, was merged into Braathens SAFE. The same year, KLM bought 30% of Braathens SAFE and the airlines started a partnership. In 1998, the airline changed its name to Braathens and introduced two-class cabins. Full-fare passengers traveled in the "Best"-class, while discounted travelers traveled in the "Back"-class. It also bought the Swedish airline Malmö Aviation. Oslo Airport, Gardermoen replaced Fornebu as the airline's main hub, and a price war started against SAS and the new low-cost airline Color Air. The availability of slots increased the frequency of flights for all three airlines to an unsustainable level. After a year, Color Air was bankrupt, but Braathens had suffered large losses, and terminated many routes, including all services in Sweden. In 2001, the airline was bought by SAS, and the following year the two coordinated their services so as not to compete. On 1 May 2004, they merged to create SAS Braathens, that re-branded to Scandinavian Airlines in 2007. ==Deregulation== The deregulation process, which would eliminate the need for concessions for routes, was driven by Norway's application for membership of the EU. This was supported by the Labor Party and the right-winged Conservative Party and Progress Party. The plans from the EU indicated that international routes within EU should be deregulated from 1 January 1993, with Norway and Sweden joining from 1 July. Full, domestic liberalization should be performed by 1 April 1997. SAS and Braathens SAFE proposed a solution where only Norwegian airlines could compete until 1997, which was thought to efficiently hinder other airlines, rather than these two, until then. SAS announced its support for competition on 4 February 1993, while Braathens SAFE stated that it no longer was in favor of competition, despite having arguing for this for the whole of the company's history. The company stated that stability was needed and that competition would result in marginalized routes, that were being cross-subsidized, being closed. SAS stated that with competition, prices would fall 20–30%, and that SAS wanted to operate with a loss to force Braathens SAFE close services.〔Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1995: 320–322〕 During the discussion about deregulation, Braathens SAFE considered several possibilities to strengthen itself. In particular, it had discussions with the large European airlines Lufthansa, British Airways and KLM about an alliance, but these were rejected by Braathens SAFE, stating that the agreements were all about getting traffic to the partner's hub. Minister of Transport, Kjell Opseth and director of SAS in Norway, Jan Reinås, both proposed a merger between Braathens SAFE and SAS, to ensure that the company had a 100% market share on the primary routes before the merger. This would, according to them, secure that no foreign company could compete with the merged company. The proposal was rejected by Braathens SAFE's management. Still, negotiations started between the companies in 1992, although they were quickly abandoned. The press reported the price of Braathens SAFE to be NOK 1.2 billion, but that this had been rejected as too expensive by SAS.〔Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1995: 308–317〕 Prior to a government report being presented on 30 March 1993, SAS had launched 1 November 1993 as their preferred date of free competition, while Braathens SAFE had launched 1 April 1997 as their preferred date. Braaathens SAFE was worried that the high debt the company had due to the purchase of new aircraft would make them illiquid in a price war. Bjørn G. Braathen stated that the company had bought the new aircraft based on the belief that deregulation would occur in 1997, giving the airline time to pay more of the debt. On 2 June 1993, with 76 against 18 votes, parliament voted to deregulate the domestic airline market from 1 April 1994. It was supported by the Labor, Conservative and Progress Party. With this, Norway became the third country in Europe to fully deregulate, after Sweden and the United Kingdom.〔Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1995: 327–334〕 Both Braathens SAFE and SAS had been cross-subsidizing their routes. Through the regulations, the airlines had agreed to fly to unprofitable airports, in exchange for making higher profits on other routes. With free competition, this would not be followed, and the authorities announced the introduction of public service obligations on routes that were not profitable. To finance these, a NOK 10 fee would be charged on all primary routes. The cost of collecting this fee was so high that SAS and Braathens SAFE announced it was cheaper to continue to fly to the unprofitable airports. Braathens SAFE stated that their routes Haugesund–Bergen and Oslo–Røros–Trondheim were not profitable.〔Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1995: 334–335〕 To meet the free market situation, the company's management introduced measures to keep costs low. On 19 August 1993, ten of eleven trade unions agreed to a three-year wage contract, which contained bonuses for all employees based on the company's profit. The cabin crew's union had a two-day strike, before reaching an agreement. At the same time, the company needed NOK 400 million in share capital. Braathens Rederi sold the sister company Braathens Helikopter to Helkopter Service for NOK 225 million on 30 September 1993, and the money was used to buy Braathens SAFE stock. The company raised further capital in an initial public offering, and the company was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 10 January 1994. After the listing, Braathens Rederi retained 69% of the company.〔Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1995: 336–339〕 On 1 April, Braathens SAFE increased the number of services. The daily number of flights from Oslo to Bergen increased to nine, and the airline introduced four new services to Northern Norway from Oslo: two each to Tromsø and Harstad/Narvik. Later, the frequency to Tromsø increased to four, and from 28 June there were also two daily round trips to Bodø. SAS increased its services on the routes from Oslo to Stavanger and Trondheim, and from Bergen to Stavanger. The liberalization did not result in a price war, and prices remained constant.〔Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1995: 340–341〕 The following two years, Braathens SAFE also introduced scheduled international flights to Rome, as well as summer routes to Jersey and Nice. However, Braathens SAFE terminated their routes from Bergen to Bodø, Harstad/Narvik and Tromsø, making the passengers switch planes in Trondheim. In 1995, Braathens signed agreements with many of the large companies in Norway as a prioritized airline. Several of the contracts had been secured by the airline offering discounts to the companies in exchange for not allowing their customers to collect frequent flyer points. SAS had not allowed this scheme, and had lost companies such as Statoil, Aker and the Government of Norway. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Braathens (1994–2004)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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