Svensk Interkontinental Lufttrafik AB, SILA, trading internationally as Swedish Intercontinental Airlines, was an airline formed in 1943 by banker
Marcus Wallenberg Jr. An early president of the airline was
Per Norlin. In August 1946 with
Danish Air Lines and
Norwegian Air Lines it became a part of a three-airline consortium (later four, with
AB Aerotransport) that would eventually merge with a pooled capitalization of $25 million as
Scandinavian Airlines. The airline operated
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 ...
and
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft.
In 1946, the company was asked by a group of Jewish Americans if it could transport about two thousand wealthy Jewish Poles out of Poland, to then fly to the United States to resettle there. Given a scarcity of aircraft (SILA operated only a twice-weekly schedule between Stockholm and Warsaw), the airline was not able to take action on the request. The airline was also a part of the 1946 introduction of United States
airmail
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be t ...
service to Copenhagen and Stockholm.
References
{{Airlines of Sweden
Defunct airlines of Sweden
Swedish companies established in 1943
Airlines established in 1943