Links Air (UK)
 

Looks like their operating a scheduled service in Italy under the name of LevrieroFly, interesting choice. Flights are between Salerno and Palermo with a few rotations to Split in Croatia. Links Air started operating for them today according to their flight schedule
Levriero FLY

I know they've currently got an aircraft operating for Blue Islands in the Channel Islands and they've been working for Manx2 for a while, so they must have expanded the fleet to start this operation. Wish them well with it

On the airports of destinations, no mention of the flights. And no arrival or departure is known... So they didn't start today..

As mentioned in the Doncaster thread, Links Air are starting routes from Doncaster to Belfast and the Isle of Man in their own name in April. Unlike operations so far they will be scheduled as Links Air rather than charters operating for another company.

In the last 12 months:
Minoan at Oxford - all routes closed
Brighton City at Shoreham - all flying suspended
Airline-that-must-not-be-named at Cambridge - 2 routes closed and remaining 2 routes heavily reduced

Anyone have knowledge of Links Air and whether they can make their attempt work ?

Think they do a lot of charter work for citywing

I was through BHD on Sunday and a boarding announcement for Citywing said the flight was operated by Links air.

I know Links Air operate flights as charter carrier for Citywing.
The point is they are now setting up a scheduled operation in their own name at Doncaster.

In the last 12 months 3 small companies have set up regional bases at airports in the UK - at Oxford, Cambridge and Brighton. All 3 have been absolute disasters commercially. In late 2012, OLT Express opened a couple of regional routes at Southend - also a big commercial flop.

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether Links Air can make scheduled flights within the British Isles using a base at Doncaster work ? I'm particularly interested to hear from those with good first hand commercial knowledge of Doncaster, Links Air or flying 19 seaters. I'm not looking for comments based purely on Links Air's wikipedia page !

Links Air (UK)
 

They flew the Oxford Edinburgh route for the scam that was Varsity Express a few years ago. Think they were out of pocket on that deal

I note that the Links Air website still doesn't accept credit/debit cards for payment - this was meant to go live on Monday 24 February. When I phoned their office last week, the person who answered explained they were working on fixing the payment card issue. At the moment, all bookings are filed under the "save for payment later" option, with 2 weeks to pay.

If flights are due to start in 31 days and the airline is unable to take revenue from website bookings, I'm beginning to lose confidence here .... anyone else know anything about this ?

Previous route operation by BE suggests there is a market for Belfast, but I'm not convinced there is such demand for IOM (all the Doncaster tax exciles have their own planes to get there :O ) if it's routes in that direction then I'm sure Glasgow would get better loads from DSA a destination that many Doncaster business travellers currently journey to EMA or LBA to make.

Isn't the problem for UK mainland from Doncaster the connectivity on offer from Doncaster train station? I'd also be inclined to question how many Doncaster business travellers exist, surely this operation are attempting to gear themselves towards the Sheffield passenger.

Yes but only for the East, still 4.5hrs to GLA at best by rail.

You may be very surprised at the number of business commuters living around Doncaster (because of the rail link) using the train daily to the City, but also taking weekly journeys north of the Border. For Edinburgh that's fine but For Glasgow it's either a night out or a flight from EMA or LBA to get a job done in a day. It's more than frustrating for it to take over an hour to get to and from either with current traffic volumes on the M1 & M62

In real terms the number of air passengers in the Doncaster area is very small. Sheffield is another matter, but things are complicated due to increased accessibility to other forms of transport and better connected airports.

sheffield is where it's at for sure, and of course when the new link road (which is now really actually being built with real diggers and everything opens) then Sheffield city centre will be less than 25/30 mins away …

A quick scout of other forums and the general internet seems that people have tried to book with Linksair and are not able to do so because of this issue with them not being able to take payments. It's very easy for a company to set up an card payment facility, unless they are not credit worthy.

Afraid to say I can see this being a complete non starter. What kind of company launches a website with a schedule of flights no one can book? I'd be very surprised if the flights operate at all.

Must agree with you Timmy (that makes a change)!

The Flybe route was very hit-and-miss with some people reporting full flights and others saying there were only six people on board. Perhaps it was too optimistic as attempting as a business route, and with due respect, Belfast is not a premier leisure destination. Still it's all on the yields etc.

I should imagine yields will be poor if they can't figure out how to charge their customers.. ;)

"Afraid to say I can see this being a complete non starter. What kind of company launches a website with a schedule of flights no one can book? I'd be very surprised if the flights operate at all".

For a company that has been operating since 2009 it seems to of done ok up to now.

Good luck to all involved, onward and upward.

A bit more scouring Twitter, forums etc, seems they are advising to customers to call back in a few weeks to book. Chances of these services ever starting are pretty much zero.

Reminds me of the other airline who tried to begin similiar services to Amsterdam. Same thing happened with them.

I'm booked (and confirmed) on a flight from Doncaster to IOM next month, so I hope it's all going ahead!
Rather a convenient airport for me, much more handy than Manchester (which I currently use every week), and I would have thought quite a few from the South Yorkshire /Humberside area will find it a useful route.