Sørfly
Sørfly A/S was a small general aviation airline based in Kristiansand, Norway. It operated from 1946 to 1962 with its base at Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik. The fleet consisted of three Auster Autocrats, a Republic Seabee seaplane, and a Miles Gemini, totaling about five aircraft.
For most of its history, Sørfly earned money from aerial photography, target towing for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, air ambulance missions, and passenger and cargo charters and sightseeing tours. From 1948 to 1951 it also ran a scheduled service on behalf of Norwegian Air Lines from Kristiansand to Aalborg and Gothenburg, and to Stavanger. The flights were contracted by DNL and the service ended in 1951 when DNL took over, after Sørfly had a difficult winter that kept them from flying for a month.
Sørfly was founded in early 1946 by four pilots and mechanics: Einar Jaatun, Ragnar Moi, Finn Erikstad and Jonny Thorsen. They started with two Auster Autocrats and focused on sightseeing flights, offering aerial tours of the area. One Autocrat was sometimes fitted with skis for winter charter work to the Setesdal wilderness for hunters.
Other early contracts included transporting cement to Skjerka and acting as a target tug for the Royal Norwegian Air Force, which provided a steady revenue stream.
In 1947 Sørfly bought a Republic Seabee seaplane, enabling coast-charter flights and access to mountain cabins in the summer. In 1948 they added a three-seat Miles Gemini and used it for a Kristiansand–Aalborg–Gothenburg route, extended to Stavanger via the Seabee. Because the service was contracted annually by DNL, it was hard to invest in larger aircraft. The contract ended in 1951 when DNL took over.
The company later tried to base flights at the closed Mandal Airport, but locals would not reopen it. The winter of 1953–54 brought heavy snow and a hangar roof collapsed on March 3, 1954. None of Sørfly’s planes were damaged, though another local aircraft was. Sørfly bought that damaged plane, repaired it, and sold it a year later. Business declined and in 1956 the Seabee was sold. The target-tug contract was lost as the Air Force wanted faster aircraft.
By the early 1960s several founders had left, and operations slowed until suspension in 1962. The last employee, Jaatun, sold the remaining four aircraft in 1962–1963. The Miles Gemini remained in use by others until 1982 and was later displayed in museums.
Sørfly’s offices were in Kristiansand, with aircraft kept in a German-era hangar. Its main contracts were air ambulance work and target tugging for the Air Force, with secondary work including aerial photography, charters and cargo.
One notable accident was the loss of an Auster Autocrat in a write-off crash on 14 February 1947 at Risør.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:59 (CET).