Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. (operating as Virgin Atlantic) is a British airline which is owned by Richard Branson's Virgin Group (51%) and Singapore Airlines (49%). It operates long-haul routes between the United Kingdom and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia from its main bases at London Heathrow and London Gatwick. Virgin has a smaller base at Manchester Airport. The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, which permits it to carry passengers, cargo, and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats. In the year to February 2007, Virgin Atlantic carried around 5.1 million passengers and made an annual profit of £46.8 million on turnover of £2,140 million.

Conception and birth

In 1982, Randolph Fields, an American-born lawyer, and Alan Hellary, a former chief pilot for Laker Airways, set up British Atlantic Airways as a direct successor to Laker Airways.

Fields got the idea of setting up an airline flying from London to the Falkland Islands in June 1982, when the Falklands War had just finished and there was an apparent need for such a service. However, Fields needed more expertise and so contacted Alan Hellary, Laker Airways' former chief pilot, who had thought about establishing a regular, commercial air service linking the UK and the Falkland Islands at the same time. Hellary was still in contact with many former colleagues who were out of work following the collapse of Laker Airways and these people continued working on the idea.

However the short runway at Port Stanley and the time it would take to improve it made the scheme unviable, so the idea of flying to the Falkland Islands was dropped. Instead, Hellary and Fields decided to try to secure a licence to fly from London Gatwick to JFK Airport in New York. A three-day hearing was held in May 1983. This application was rejected after both British Caledonian and BAA objected.

Despite the failure of the two earlier schemes, Hellary and Fields persevered, applying for a licence to fly between London Gatwick and Newark Liberty International Airport, just outside New York. It was planned that British Atlantic Airways would use a 380-seat DC-10 to fly to Newark. However, faced with the prospect of direct competition from People Express, a rapidly expanding post-deregulation "no frills" discount airline also based at Newark, they decided to secure additional funding before proceeding with their venture.

Fields met Richard Branson at a party in Central London during which he proposed a business partnership between Branson and himself to get his fledgling airline off the ground. After protracted and testy negotiations, Fields agreed to a reduced stake of 25% in the airline (renamed Virgin Atlantic) and became Virgin Atlantic's first chairman.

Following a series of disagreements over operational issues, Fields later agreed to be bought out for an initial sum of £1 million with further payment due upon Virgin's first dividend payment. As a result of a High Court action, this additional payment was received shortly before Fields' death from cancer in 1997.