 Braathens SAFE was also given the right to fly its first international scheduled flights for the first time in several decades . On 19 August 1988 , the airline was granted concession to fly to Billund in Denmark . At the same time , Air @-@ X was granted concession to fly the route via Sandefjord and <unk> . The route started on 2 May 1989 . Previously the rules stated that if SAS flew to a non @-@ Scandinavian destination from any capital , no other Scandinavian airlines could fly to that city . Braathens SAFE lost many contracts in the charter market in 1990 , following <unk> 's purchase of larger Douglas DC @-@ 10 aircraft . On 18 May 1990 , Braathens SAFE was awarded the concession a route from Oslo , Bergen and Stavanger to Newcastle , which opened on 3 April 1991 . The airline was also awarded the route from Tromsø to <unk> , Russia , once per week from 28 January 1993 . 
