Virgin Atlantic a result of a High Court action, this additional payment was received shortly before Fields' death in 1997. On 22 June 1984, Virgin Atlantic operated its inaugural scheduled service, flown between Gatwick and Newark using a leased Boeing 747-200 (registration ), christened "Maiden Voyager", which had been formerly operated by Aerolíneas Argentinas. From the onset, its activities were augmented by leveraging existing Virgin Group resources, such as tickets being sold at Virgin Megastores record shops. Part of Richard Branson's declared approach to business is to either succeed within the first year or exit the market; this ethos includes a one-year
Virgin Atlantic Little Red Aer Lingus already provided competition for BA on flights to Northern Ireland from Heathrow. Little Red was later revealed to be operated on a wet-lease by Aer Lingus whereby the planes would be operated by Aer Lingus but would bear Virgin Atlantic livery. The pilots would be employed by Aer Lingus, with cabin crew supplied by McGinley Aviation. The cabin crew would wear Virgin Little Red uniforms and had training from Virgin, despite the fact that airline had not previously operated narrow-body aircraft. Virgin announced that initially the airline would operate four daily flights between London Heathrow Airport and Manchester