BRA (Braathens Regional Airline): Why You Can No Longer Book a Flight Under This Name in Sweden

History and positioning

For almost a decade BRA sold its own tickets on the Swedish domestic market, before undergoing, at the end of 2024, a radical transformation of its business model: the airline stopped selling scheduled flights under its own name to the public, converting entirely into a wet-lease (ACMI) operator, meaning aircraft with crew rented out to other carriers.

The fleet

The fleet, made up entirely of ATR 72-600 turboprops, now numbers seventeen aircraft with an average age of 8.2 years, with its main maintenance base at Ängelholm-Helsingborg Airport.

Routes and network

Since 2024 these aircraft have flown almost exclusively under contract for third parties: a seven-year wet-lease agreement worth about six billion Swedish kronor with SAS absorbs most of the capacity, alongside a crew base in Vienna supporting the regional operations of Austrian Airlines. In practice, BRA's aircraft and staff remain in service, but the ticket the end passenger buys carries the SAS or Austrian brand, no longer BRA's.

If your SAS or Austrian Airlines booking shows a small ATR 72 turboprop on a regional Swedish or Austrian route, it is very likely that the aircraft and crew are actually BRA's, even though the brand appears nowhere in the purchase process.

So don't look for a BRA booking site: since 2024 any ticket on these flights must be bought through SAS or Austrian Airlines, which remain the only official points of contact for schedules, changes and refunds.