Background
Kjos was born and grew up in Sokna in Ringerike. In 1953, his father Ola started the airline Norsk Skogbruksfly, and bought a Piper Cub.
aviator entrepreneur judge jurist novelist
Kjos was born and grew up in Sokna in Ringerike. In 1953, his father Ola started the airline Norsk Skogbruksfly, and bought a Piper Cub.
University of Oslo (Candidate of Jurisprudence, 1978). Lecturer, Business Law for Final Examine, University of Oslo, 1981-1985. With, Ministry of Oil and Energy, 1978.
Associate Judge, Moss, 1979-1980.
Associate with Law Firm, Arne Meltvedt, 1981-1983.
After serving as a paratrooper with the Norwegian Army, Bjørn enrolled at the Norwegian Air Force Academy. He became a trained pilot in the Royal Norwegian Air Force during two years of training in Mississippi and Arizona in the United States, and flew Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and Northrop F-5 from 1969 to 1975 during the height of the Cold war. Upon returning to Norway he applied for work at the Scandinavian Airlines System, since however they did not need any new pilots, Kjos started studying law at the University of Oslo.
From 1983 to 2002, he worked as a lawyer, and was also for a period a judge in Moss District Court.
Since 1993 he has access to work with Supreme Court cases. In 1993, following the bankruptcy of the airline Busy Bee, Kjos and several employees started Norwegian Air Shuttle, that used the newly available Fokker 50 aircraft to fly regional routes in Western Norway for Braathens SAFE, routes which had previously been served by Busy Bee.
Kjos chaired the company from 1993 to 1996. Kjos also owned part of Lufttransport, where he was chair until 2005, when it was sold to Lufttransport.
In 2002, Kjos transformed Norwegian Air Shuttle into a low-cost airline, and leased eight Boeing 737-300s.
With the 2004 take-over by SAS of Braathens, Norwegian Air Shuttle quickly became Norway"s second largest airline. Since Kjos took over as Chief Executive Officer of the regional airline in 2002, Norwegian Air Shuttle has become the second-largest airline in Scandinavia. Rockford Award Recognized for Outstanding Contribution to Regional Workforce November 2014 In March 2015, Kjos debated wealth concentration with Thomas Piketty on Skavlan, a popular Norwegian-Swedish television talk show.
On air, Piketty pressured Kjos to disclose his Netto worth after Kjos claimed that he had paid $2m United States dollar in taxes, this according to Kjos being "ten times as much tax as earned" and representing a "1,000 % tax rate".
Kjos later referred to a salary of a "couple of hundred thousand dollars". Kjos was very reluctant to estimate his Netto worth, but the host Fredrik Skavlan suggested an amount of one to two billion, likely referring to an estimate in Norwegian kronor.
At that time, Kjos held via HBK Invest 20.5 % of the shares of Norwegian Air Shuttle, the company at that time having a market cap of about $1B United States dollar. In Norway, a wealth tax rate of 1.0% was levied on Netto assets exceeding 1,000,000 NOK as of 2014.
Norwegian Bar Association. Norwegian Maritime Law Association.