Ludvig Gustav Braathen (17 March 1891 – 27 December 1976) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

that founded the shipping company Ludvig G. Braathens Rederi and the airline

Braathens SAFE Braathens ASA, until 1997 Braathens South American & Far East Airtransport A/S and trading as Braathens SAFE, was a Norwegian airline which operated from 1946 until it merged with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in 2004 to become SAS Braathens. F ...

. He was CEO of both companies until his death.

Biography

Braathen grew up as one of seven siblings in

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...

. He started studying commercial studies as a 15-year-old in Drammen, and later at Treiders Handelsskole in Oslo. In his youth, Braathen wanted to become an entrepreneur, preferably within the lumber industry. He started working for a furniture wood dealer. In 1909, he changed jobs, and started working for ship-owner E. B. Aaby in Strømsø. In 1913, he moved to

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, 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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914 forced Braathen to return home, where he served as a conscript in the Norwegian Royal Guards. After one year, he was hired as an administrator for ship-owner B. A. Sanne in Oslo. When Sanne died in 1922, Braathen was hired as CEO, along with Sanne's son. In 1926, Braathen started his own shipping company: Braathens Rederi A/S. He invested all his savings, , along with some capital from one of the captains and a broker. Another NOK 25,000 was borrowed. He bought several small ships that were put into service on routes from Europe to China. The first tanker was bought in 1929 and by 1936, the company had ships totalling 56,000 tonnes.Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1996: 17 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. The Japanese shipyards could not guarantee that they could repair the ship, and at first it was considered whether the ship should be towed to Europe for repairs. The solution chosen was instead to have the necessary piece made in Amsterdam and flown to Japan by

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally ''Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V.'' (literal translation: Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amste ...

. 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 San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. 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 New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. This was rejected, since the authorities did not feel the time was right to give subsidies for such a route.Tjomsland and Wilsberg, 1996: 17–19 On 26 March 1946, Braathens Rederi established an airline called Braathens South American & Far East Airtransport (Braathens SAFE), a subsidiary that bought several

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1 ...

aircraft to start charter flights to the Far East and South America. The main intention was to supply his ships with supplies and crews, in addition to providing a service for other shipping companies and travelers. Braathen remained CEO of the company until his death, when the company was taken over by his son Bjørn G. Braathen.

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Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Braathen, Ludvig G. 1891 births 1976 deaths Norwegian company founders Norwegian airline chief executives Norwegian businesspeople in shipping Braathens people People from Drammen