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 Aer Lingus already provided competition for BA on flights to Northern Ireland from Heathrow. Little Red was later revealed to be operated on a wet-lease by Aer Lingus whereby the planes would be operated by Aer Lingus but would bear Virgin Atlantic livery. The pilots would be employed by Aer Lingus, with cabin crew supplied by McGinley Aviation. The cabin crew would wear Virgin Little Red uniforms and had training from Virgin, despite the fact that airline had not previously operated narrow-body aircraft. Virgin announced that initially the airline would operate four daily flights between London Heathrow Airport and Manchester