page_title: Coast Air
section_title: Vildanden
hierarchical_section_title: Coast Air / History / Vildanden
caption_attribution_description: English: One of Coast Air's ATR-42s, LN-FAP. Photo taken at Ängelholm Airport, Sweden. Swedish: Ett av Coast Air's ATR-42:or, LN-FAP. Bilden är tagen på Ängelholms flygplats.
context_page_description: Coast Air AS was a regional airline based at Haugesund Airport, Karmøy in Norway. It was Norway's fourth largest airline and operated domestic services within Norway, in addition to international services. Routes were concentrated along the West Coast, as well as some public service obligation contracts in Southern Norway. The company had a fleet of de Havilland Canada Twin Otter aircraft, later replaced with Jetstream 31s and ATR 42s.
  The company was founded on the remains of Coast Aero Center, which operated from 1975 to 1988. Coast Air started flying de Havilland Canada Twin Otter aircraft from Haugesund to Oslo Airport, Fornebu and Bergen Airport, Flesland. In 1990, service from Fagernes Airport, Leirin was also introduced, a route that lasted until 1997. Following the deregulation of aviation in Norway in 1994, Coast Air started several regional routes, replacing its fleet with Jetstream 31 aircraft. From 2000, Coast Air also served Florø Airport on public service obligation with the Ministry of Transport, using ATR 42 aircraft. In 2003, it lost the Florø contract, but regained the Fagernes route.
context_section_description: On 23 November 2004, eighteen local investors founded the airline Vildanden to start scheduled flights from Skien Airport, Geiteryggen. For a long period, there had been a public debate about closing the airport. It was decided to operate the company as a virtual airline, and wet lease operations from other companies. In October 2004, a contract was signed with Coast Air, who would operate a Jetstream 31 aircraft between Skien and Bergen. Coast Air also bought 20% of Vildanden. Skien Airport had then been closed since 2002, following the increased domestic and international traffic from near-by Sandefjord Airport, Torp.
  Initial service would have 16 weekly departures to Bergen Airport, Flesland. The main targeted market segment was the offshore petroleum industry, and the departure times were designed to meet helicopter routes to offshore installations. The company estimated that one quarter of travelers would be people commuting to the North Sea. Norsk Hydro, who have a lot of employees in the Grenland area, stated that they could not start using Vildanden because they had an agreement to use SAS Braathens' services from Sandefjord. The first scheduled service flew on 24 January 2005, carrying eight passenger.
  On 19 April, a new Jetstream 32 aircraft was taken into service. This allowed capacity to increase from 12 to 19 passengers, and at the same time travel time was reduced from 47 to 39 minutes. By September, the most popular departures were being fully booked, and Vildanden asked Coast Air for a larger aircraft, with about 30 seats. In addition to allowing more passengers, larger planes would give higher comfort, and allow a more flexible ticket pricing scheme. An agreement with Danish Air Transport (DAT) to operate an ATR 42, with a capacity of 48 seats, was signed by Vildanden in mid October.
  To be able to breach the agreement with Coast Air—who still had a wet leasing contract, but were not able to put into operation a larger aircraft—the company Skien Lufttransport AS was created, and it purchased all the revenue and passenger rights from Vildanden. At the same time, it became the legal counterpart for DAT. The new aircraft was put into service on 31 October, branded with the Vildanden logo. Coast Air chose to continue operating the route between Bergen and Skien in their own name, and used the same aircraft and slot times. At Skien Airport, the Vildanden passengers were given the choice between Coast Air and Vildanden, and all nineteen chose Vildanden. On the return flight, three passengers chose each airline. Both aircraft flew to Skien, but due to heavy rain, only the aircraft from DAT was able to land. The passengers who had taken the Coast Air aircraft were instead forced to land at Sandefjord Airport.
  The following day, Coast Air terminated their flights, but stated that they still had an agreement with Vildanden. Skien Lufttransport on their hand stated that Vildanden was now a sleeping company, and that contract therefore was terminated. Both companies considered the incident a legal matter. In December, the two companies settled out of court.
caption: Coast Air ATR 42 LN-FAP
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