The Swedish-registered Junkers F 13, S-AAAB in the harbour of Oslo. it made numerous joyrides.
Capt. Doxrud worked with full energy on the formation of an airline company under the name of AS Norsk Aerotransport. Adrian Florman considered the choice of Capt. Doxrud as managing director of AS Norsk Aerotransport crazy. Furthermore it was clear that previous no airline company under the name of AS Norsk Aerotransport was either registered or formed in Norway. Thus no shares could be taken over by AB Aerotransport or Junkers Luftverkehr AG. They had to start all over again.
But Capt. Doxrud did not manage to start up until 1926. His first attempt was the company Norsk Lufttrafikkselskap AS, founded on March 6, 1926 with a stock-capital of 50,000 Norwegian Kroner. The plan was to start up with chartered Junkers F 13s from Sweden the regular domestic air service Trondheim – Tromsø. The company did not start up. The name resembles a lot the words Aero (Luft) Transport (Trafikk), so this might well have been the working name for the company.
But on 1 July 1926 AB Aerotransport however started up a regular service between Göteborg, København and Malmö using Junkers F 13s and Junkers G 24s. That day is also the day that AS Norsk Aerotransport officially announced to be formed and possible shareholders were invited to sign up. The aim of the company was ‘’..flying regular services and other flights and all other work connected with flying, such as buying and selling of aircraft, etc…’’. The company’s stock-capital was to be at least 12,000, with a maximum of 50,000 Norwegian Kroner. Each share was worth NOK.100,-. The first to sign up were Capt. Christian Doxrud (of course), the ship owner H Holmsen and the attorney Oluf Aal. The signing up for the shares could be done between August 15 and October 15, 1926 at the company’s office at Karl Johans Gate 13 in Oslo.
To promote the company Capt. Doxrud decided to charter a Junkers F 13 from AB Aerotransport for joy ride flights in Oslo. The aircraft chartered was equipped with floats and bore the registration S-AAAB (c/n 714). The Swedish pilot Ernst Roll flew it. It arrived at Oslo on 20 August and moored at the famous Oslo Restaurant Kongen (The King). During the weekdays it was stationed here, but was moved to Strand during the weekends, due to heavy boat-traffic around the restaurant during the weekend. The price for a flight with the Junkers F 13 was NOK.20,- per person. During its stay in Oslo, Roll made a demonstration-flight to Horten (Naval Base). On Monday, August 23 he flew the Oslo-press and from the 24th he started to fly the Oslo-citizens. The interest of the population of Oslo turned out to be enormous. The plan was to return the aircraft on August 31; and until that day 105 flights were made, carrying 500 passengers. It was decided to prolong the stay until September 12. During the week of September 5-12 the annual Norwegian Trade Fair was held and it was in connection with this fair that extra flights were made. A special bus-shuttle was set up from the fairground (Akershus Fortress) to the Restaurant Kongen. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten even chartered the Junkers F 13 to pick up some photographs in Ask at the shores of the Lake Tyrifjord. The pictures, together with a huge article about the flight were published in the newspaper.
When the fair closed down some two-hunderd flights had been made, carrying around 1000 passengers. A huge success. In an interview Capt. Doxrud said that AS Norsk Aerotransport would like to buy a Junkers F 13, but that the chartering of one would be within the financial reach of the company. It wanted to start the regular service Oslo – Göteborg in co-operation with AB Aerotransport. The Swedish company had plans to open up a scheduled service linking Göteborg with Stockholm in connection with the service from Oslo. Furthermore Capt. Doxrud planned to start up a service between Trondheim and Tromsø – in the far north of Norway. Here he would use Norwegian mechanics. He also expressed the opinion that a service to London would be desirable, but one had to wait for better aircraft. All these plans were never realised. On September 13 the Swedish Junkers F 13 returned to Stockholm and nothing was heard of AS Norsk Aerotransport anymore. It was never founded nor registered.
Read more about the attempts of Junkers Luftverkehr AG to start up airlines in Scandinavia: “JUNKERS FOR SCANDINAVIA” by Rob J. M. Mulder