Virgin Atlantic provided BAA, which ran both Heathrow and Gatwick on behalf of the UK government, and the Secretary of State for Transport granted permission. The Civil Aviation Authority also transferred two pairs of unused landing slots that British Airways held at Tokyo's Narita Airport to Virgin to let it increase its frequency between Heathrow and Tokyo from four to six weekly round trips, making it easier for Virgin to compete against British Airways. The then-chairman of BA Lord King called the CAA's decision, which the government had endorsed, "a confiscation of his company's property". In the year to October 1993, Virgin
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.