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
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