scheduled service during summer 1956 between Blackbushe and Jersey. It operated its first year-round scheduled service in 1960, linking Bristol and Cardiff with Liverpool. That service was inaugurated with a pair of de Havilland Doves. Subsequent changes included extending the service from Bristol to Plymouth, and replacing Doves with larger Herons and DC-3s. The resulting route pattern became the foundation of the Link City network. This linked South West England with the Northeast via stops at the commercial centres of the Midlands and the Northwest. DC-3s continued plying all domestic Link City scheduled routes for the first ten years. The first international scheduled route was launched in 1960, linking Bristol and Cardiff with Basle. Further international scheduled services from Liverpool to Rotterdam, Bristol to Basle via Bournemouth as well as from Bristol and Gatwick to Ostend followed during the early 1960s. These were operated with DC-3s and Airspeed Ambassadors. Dan-Air's acquisition of Scottish Airlines and Skyways International in 1961 and 1972 enlarged the scheduled operation. The former brought a passenger-configured DC-3 and a seasonal route linking Prestwick with the Isle of Man. The latter resulted in four additional HS 748s and year-round services linking Bournemouth with Jersey and Guernsey, as well as seasonal flights linking Gatwick with Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier. These aircraft let the airline expand Link City by adding Bournemouth and reorganising the structure by introducing Bournemouth–Birmingham–Liverpool/Manchester–Newcastle and Luton–Leeds Bradford–Glasgow, in April 1972. Schedules offered same-day-returns Monday to Friday. These ex-Skyways HS 748s enabled Dan-Air to open a seasonal Gatwick–Bern route in June 1972, the first direct scheduled air link between the UK and the Swiss capital. The acquisition resulted in the HS 748 becoming the main scheduled aircraft for the next ten years. As a consequence, 748s replaced the Nord 262 Dan-Air had acquired from Air Ceylon in 1970 as a DC-3 replacement to operate Bristol–Cardiff–Liverpool–Newcastle. In addition, Skyways brought a scheduled route linking Ashford (Lympne) Airport in Kent with Beauvais. This formed part of a London–Paris coach-air service, which Skyways had pioneered in 1955 with DC-3s. Dan-Air continued this service until the early 1980s. When Ashford closed in 1974, services moved to Lydd. Seven-four-eights, One-Elevens and Vickers Viscounts leased from other operators operated these services. In 1973, Dan-Air added Teesside as a stop to Link City and inaugurated scheduled services between Teesside and Amsterdam. In 1974, Dan-Air began replacing the 748 with Comets and One-Elevens on its