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
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