Linjeflyg

If you leaf through old Swedish photo albums or spotter archives, sooner or later you come across a name: Linjeflyg. For more than three decades it was the airline you took in Sweden to get from Stockholm to Gothenburg, Malmö, Luleå or Visby. Its face in the 1970s and ’80s was the Fokker F28 – at times no other operator had more. Here you learn how Linjeflyg came about, which aircraft it flew, why it vanished into SAS in 1993 and how to assign historic shots correctly.

Linjeflyg at a glance

Linjeflyg was a historic Swedish domestic airline that flew under its own name from 1957 to the end of 1992. The name simply means “scheduled flight” – and that was exactly its job: regular connections within Sweden, while SAS served the international routes.

The company was founded in Stockholm in 1957. The first chief was Sven Östling, who led Linjeflyg until 1967. The shareholders were SAS, the small airline Airtaco and the publishers of the Stockholm newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Stockholms-Tidningen – an unusual mix of aviation and the press.

Shortly before the end, Linjeflyg was Sweden’s largest domestic airline. In 1992 it comprised around 35 aircraft, served 39 destinations, carried over five million passengers a year and employed about 2,200 people.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code LF: appeared in flight numbers and on old tickets and timetables.
• ICAO code LIN: shows up in historic flight plan data.
• Callsign SWEDLINE: how the crews identified themselves on the radio.
• Registration SE-: the fleet was registered in Sweden. How to derive the build year and history of an aircraft from its registration is explained in the guide Finding out an aircraft’s age.

There was one peculiarity right at the end: three Boeing 737-300s in quick-change configuration flew in Linjeflyg livery in 1991 and 1992, but were operated by the Swedish Falcon Air. With such photos, the livery and the actual operator do not match.

From the DC-3 to a jet airline: the history

The beginnings with Airtaco (1957–1960)

Linjeflyg did not start from zero. The airline Airtaco, founded in 1950 as Aero Scandia, merged into the new company and brought its entire fleet – four Lockheed Lodestars and four Douglas DC-3s. The DC-3 stayed in service until 1965, and 16 examples flew for Linjeflyg in total. If you want to know more about this classic, you can find the background in the article on the history of the DC-3.

The Convair years (1960–1979)

From 1960 the Convair 340/440 Metropolitan took the lead role. Until 1979 Linjeflyg operated 23 of these twin piston-engine aircraft with 52 to 56 seats. Smaller types also appeared alongside: two Aero Commanders flown by Ehrenström Flyg for Linjeflyg, and from 1967 to 1975 four Nord 262s – a French turboprop with 26 seats.

The airline’s deadliest accident also falls into this period. On November 20, 1964, a Convair 440 with the registration SE-CCK touched down about two kilometers before the runway on approach to Ängelholm. 31 of the 43 people on board died. The investigation did not hold any single person responsible, but pointed to the unfamiliar military approach lighting of the airfield and the responsibilities of the aviation authority and the air force.

The Fokker F28 era (1973–1992)

In 1973 the first jet arrived: the Fokker F28 Fellowship. In 1976 Linjeflyg became the launch customer of the improved Mk 4000 version, which seats up to 85 passengers and entered service with Linjeflyg at the end of 1976. In total 20 F28s flew for the airline, three Mk 1000s and 17 Mk 4000s. Around 1992 Linjeflyg was thus the largest F28 operator in the world.

The second serious accident occurred on January 15, 1977. A Vickers Viscount (SE-FOZ), leased from the airline Skyline, crashed on approach to Bromma near Kälvesta in western Stockholm. The cause was ice accretion on the horizontal stabilizer; all 22 people on board died.

From 1978 to 1980 Jan Carlzon led the airline before moving to SAS, where he later became known as group CEO.

Move to Arlanda

For a long time the city-center airport Stockholm-Bromma was Linjeflyg’s home. In the early 1980s Linjeflyg and SAS moved their domestic traffic to Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. Accounts of the airline give October 1983 for this, other sources the year 1984. Bromma remained a place for business and general aviation for a long time afterward, until in the early 1990s new carriers like Malmö Aviation resumed scheduled flights there.

The fleet: from the DC-3 to the 737-500

Type	Period	Number	Seats	Spotter note
Lockheed L-18 Lodestar	1957–1960	4	15	Legacy of Airtaco
Douglas DC-3	1957–1965	16	28–32	Tailwheel aircraft, photos mostly black and white
Convair 340/440 Metropolitan	1960–1979	23	52–56	Twin piston-engine airliner with nose gear
Nord 262	1967–1975	4	26	Small high-wing turboprop from France
Fokker F28 Mk 1000 / Mk 4000	1973–1992	20	65–85	The trademark; launch customer of the Mk 4000
Boeing 737-300	1989–1991	2	147–148	Partly leased from Maersk Air
Boeing 737-500	1990–1992	10	130–131	First delivery in April 1990
Boeing 737-300QC	1991–1992	3	142	Operated by Falcon Air

The Fokker F28 is the type most people associate with Linjeflyg. For the Mk 4000, Fokker used the stretched fuselage of the Mk 2000, extended the wing and fitted quieter Rolls-Royce Spey engines. On top of that came a reworked cockpit and a cabin with closed overhead bins. The F28’s successor, the Fokker 100, no longer played a role at Linjeflyg.

For the Convair years it is worth a look at the page on the Convair CV-240/340/440: there you learn how to tell the versions apart. And the last additions were Boeing jets: the Boeing 737-500 arrived from 1990, supplemented by a few 737-300s. After the merger many of these aircraft kept flying at SAS.

How to recognize Linjeflyg

The most reliable combination on historic photos is titles, registration and type. The name Linjeflyg is on the fuselage, the registration begins with SE-, and in the 1970s and ’80s the aircraft is almost always an F28. You recognize the F28 itself by the T-tail, the two engines at the rear and the split tail cone that opens as an air brake.

The end: Bilspedition, SAS and the 1993 merger

For decades SAS held half of the shares in Linjeflyg. In September 1990 SAS surprisingly sold this stake to the transport company Bilspedition – but took it back after a short time. In February 1992 SAS also took over the other half and thus controlled the airline completely.

The background to the complete takeover was a planned alliance between Linjeflyg and the Norwegian Braathens SAFE and the Danish Maersk Air. SAS saw this as a threat to the connections between the Scandinavian capitals and to Swedish domestic traffic. On January 1, 1993, Linjeflyg was finally merged into SAS.

One detail makes the merger interesting for spotters: in transitional phases, aircraft often wear mixed liveries or just a new title. How to recognize such intermediate states is explained in the article on hybrid and mixed liveries.

Linjeflyg and the Swedish domestic market

With the liberalization of Swedish domestic air traffic around 1992, the market changed fundamentally. While Linjeflyg merged into SAS, new carriers dared to enter: Malmö Aviation flew from Bromma, and later airlines like NextJet and BRA Braathens Regional Airlines joined. If you want to understand Swedish regional aviation as a whole, Linjeflyg is the starting point. The article Regional airlines in Europe gives an overview of the field.

Linjeflyg today: an archive topic

You will no longer see an active Linjeflyg aircraft. The airline stays interesting anyway: many of its types have a firm place in aviation history, and Swedish museums like the Swedish Air Force Museum near Linköping show how diverse the country’s aviation is – even if the emphasis there is on military aircraft.

If you want to spot in Stockholm today, the spotting spots at Arlanda Airport are the place where Linjeflyg spent its last ten years. The types of that time, however, have long since vanished from everyday operations there. How rare a sighting is can be judged with the guide to the rarity of sightings.

Common mix-ups

• Taking Linjeflyg for an SAS brand – SAS was involved, but until 1992 Linjeflyg was a company of its own with its own code LF.
• Attributing every 737-300 in the Linjeflyg look to Linjeflyg – Falcon Air operated the quick-change aircraft.
• Confusing the F28 with the Fokker 100 – the Fokker 100 is longer, has different engines and never flew for Linjeflyg.
• Taking the Viscount for a Linjeflyg aircraft – the aircraft lost in 1977 was leased from Skyline.
• Confusing Linjeflyg with Malmö Aviation – Malmö Aviation resumed scheduled flights from Bromma only after Linjeflyg’s move.

Conclusion

For 35 years Linjeflyg was one of Sweden’s defining domestic airlines – from the DC-3 through the Convair years to the world’s largest F28 fleet. With the complete takeover by SAS, the story ended on January 1, 1993. If you want to assign old photos from Bromma or Arlanda, look for the titles, the SE- registration and the type – and remember the exceptions like the Falcon Air 737s.