Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, United Kingdom. The airline was established in 1984 as "British Atlantic Airways", and was originally planned by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and the Falkland Islands. Soon after changing the name to Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fields sold his shares in the company after disagreements with Sir Richard Branson over the management of the company. The maiden flight from Gatwick Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport took place
Asheville Regional Airport (MCO) both via Charlotte. Piedmont was the only airline operating jet service into Asheville by February 1985 according to the OAG with Boeing 727-200 and Fokker F28 Fellowship nonstop flights from Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte and Roanoke as well as direct one stop 727 service from Denver, Miami and New York LaGuardia Airport plus direct one stop F28 service from New York Newark Airport. This same OAG also lists nonstop Delta Connection flights from Atlanta operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) on behalf of Delta on a code sharing basis with de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 and Short 360 turboprops