Kato Air was incorporated on 16 February 1995. However, not until 21 February 1996 did it receive an
air operator's certificate for general aviation. In the intermediate period the airline cooperated with another airline. The airline established a base at Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes, as the first airline to be based at the airport. The company was founded and owned by Karl Johan Karlsen, acting as chairman, and his wife Torlaug Karlsen, the managing director. "Kato" is derived from the first two letters from their respective first names. The fleet started off with a
Piper PA-31 Chieftain and a
Cessna 172 in 1995. The following year the airline bought a
Maule M-5 and a
Cessna 208 was procured in 1997. By 1997, had been invested in the airline. Its first permanent contract was with
Verdens Gang to distribute printed newspaper from the press in Harstad to Bodø and Troms]. Later the arrangement was extended to also include the distribution of
Dagbladet. The company had a revenue of 6.3 million
Norwegian krone in 1997, making a profit of one million. The company sourced seventy percent of its revenue from the newspaper contracts. The main
ad hoc charter contractors were the
Norwegian Geological Survey and the
Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management. One of these was taken over by Kato Air, who christened it
Bjørnfjell; the other was leased. They had 16 and 19 seats, respectively. The route commenced on 7 December 1998. Each leg had a morning and afternoon round trip on weekdays, as well as an evening flight on Sundays. Kato Air bought ground services from
Scandinavian Airlines at Harstad/Narvik and from Widerøe in Bodø and Tromsø. The arrangement ultimately resulted in Kato Air taking over the entire fixed-wing division of Helitrans, who remained with only helicopter operations. Patronage on the route was too low to keep the route running, and it was terminated in November 1999. A contributing factor was an imported
fast ferry service to Tromsø. The Dorniers were subsequently mostly used for charters with oil companies, with
Statoil being a dominant customer. Of particular importance was a charter route with the oil company from
Trondheim Airport, Værnes to
Brønnøysund Airport, Brønnøy. For a period starting in February 2002 the airline also flew a charter route from Trondheim to
Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget. Starting 1 April 2003 Kato Airline took over two public service obligation routes, which received subsidies from the
Ministry of Transport and Communications. Both were out of Bodø, one to
Røst Airport and the other to
Narvik Airport, Framnes—the downtown airport serving Narvik. The company's revenue peaked at 61 million kroner in 2003. After failing to make a profit on the Narvik route, Kato Air announced in late 2004 that it would terminate operations on the route from 8 March 2005. No companies bid to fly the route, and so the ministry entered negotiations with Kato Airline to continue operations. This resulted in the fee for the remaining thirteen months increasing from 8 million to 18.2 million kroner. By 2006 the patronage at Narvik Airport, Framnes had halved in the three years the route was operated by Kato Airline. During late 2005 Kato Air lost three important contracts, both the newspaper flights, the Statoil flights and the Narvik contract. The loss of business ultimately led to a loss of 10 million kroner in 2007 and put the company under severe financial pressure. This led the company to increase its
ad hoc business, which included winning the contract for the organization of the
2007 Dakar Rally. Following an inspection, the
Civil Aviation Authority of Norway withdrew Kato Air Service's aircraft maintenance certificate on 28 August 2008. They citied several severe breaches of regulation and routines. Subsequently, the board decided on 1 September to
liquidate the company. ==Destinations==