Sweden’s BRA to relaunch international flights in 3Q21

BRA – Braathens Regional Airlines (TF, Stockholm Bromma) has announced it will relaunch scheduled international flights towards the end of the summer season, connecting Aarhus in Denmark with destinations in Sweden. The Swedish regional carrier will operate from Stockholm Bromma via Gothenburg Landvetter to Denmark’s second-largest city 6x weekly starting on September 27. Flights from Sälen, an airport opened in late 2019 to serve the nearby ski resorts of Sälen and Idre in Sweden, and Trysil in Norway, are scheduled to begin on December 19, 2021, and will operate 2x weekly. All flights to Aarhus will be operated with ATR72-600 turboprops by BRA’s technical subsidiary BRA – Braathens Regional Airways. “We see it as the perfect time to launch BRA in Denmark as our first international market here at the back of the pandemic. Aarhus Airport is a really good match for BRA with an attractive guest potential in the Aarhus region and Jutland, and we look forward to making a strong effort to link the Nordic region closer together,” owner Per G Braathen said. BRA had a rough 2020 due to the pandemic, which forced it to suspend all operations on April 6, 2020, and subsequently, file for bankruptcy protection. The crisis jeopardised its planned expansion of European operations, which had been due to begin on March 30, 2020. The carrier planned to gradually add new international routes over the Summer 2020 season in addition to its Växjö-Berlin Tegel route, which operated from summer 2018. It relaunched limited charter operations on October 1, 2020, and then resumed scheduled domestic operations later in the final quarter of 2020. It currently connects its Bromma base with Gothenburg, Malmö, Visby, Angelholm/Helsingborg, and Umeå with more domestic routes due to restart throughout the Summer 2021 season. The carrier’s fleet comprises twelve ATR72-600s. Currently, Aarhus’s only international services, to Berlin Brandenburg Int’l, are operated by easyJet Europe, the ch-aviation schedules module shows. However, Ryanair and Air Dolomiti are scheduled to start flights to the Danish airport later this summer. Per G Braathen is the brother of Erik Braathen, another industry veteran who is backing Norwegian low-cost carrier start-up, Flyr.