Virgin Atlantic limit being expressed upon everything associated with starting up operations. Virgin Atlantic became profitable within the first 12 months, aided by sister company Virgin Records' ability to finance the lease of a secondhand Boeing 747. The firm had timed its operations to take advantage of a full summer, from June to September, which was typically the most profitable period of the year. In November 1984 the airline launched a service between Gatwick Airport and Maastricht Aachen Airport in the Netherlands using a chartered BAC One-Eleven. In 1986 the airline added another Boeing 747 to its fleet and started a scheduled
Newark Liberty International Airport City, and south of Downtown Newark. It is one of three major airports serving the New York Metropolitan Area, the others being John F. Kennedy and La Guardia in Queens, New York, both of which are also operated by the Port Authority. It also attracts a significant passenger base from the Philadelphia metropolitan area. In 2017, EWR was the fifteenth busiest airport in the United States, and the forty-third busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic, serving 43,393,499 passengers. Newark serves 50 carriers and is the third-largest hub (after Chicago–O'Hare and Houston–Intercontinental) for United Airlines, which is the airport's