Virgin Atlantic at Port Stanley Airport, and the time it would take to improve it, would render a route to the Falklands commercially unviable, thus the idea of such a service was dropped. In its place, Hellary and Fields commenced efforts to secure a licence to operate a route Gatwick Airport, London and John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. During May 1983, a three-day inquiry was conducted, which chose to reject the application following objections from British Airways, British Caledonian and BAA. Hellary and Fields then applied for a licence between Gatwick and Newark, New Jersey, using a 380-seat McDonnell
San Jose International Airport Airbus A330-200, but both carriers ended service in 2018. In the wake of its acquisition of Virgin America, Alaska Airlines grew quickly at Mineta Airport as well as San Francisco International Airport between 2015 and 2018, adding intra-state cities like Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego, along with east coast destinations Newark and New York-JFK. Alaska has designated SJC a focus city in several articles when announcing new destinations. Other domestic carriers have also increased service or returned to the airport. JetBlue restarted flights to Long Beach. Frontier Airlines resumed service to Denver and began flights to Las Vegas.