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
Virgin Atlantic Little Red Little Red, all but three of the Heathrow slots were returned to BA and absorbed back into their operation, thus granting them a monopoly on UK mainland domestic flights at Heathrow for the first time since British Midland Airways (as BMI were named at the time) moved into Heathrow in 1982. However this was dependent on another airline not being willing to take the place of Little Red in running domestic flights from Heathrow. Virgin leased out the three slots it retained. In 2017, the remaining Little Red slots were taken over by Flybe. During its operation, Virgin Atlantic Little