Virgin Atlantic at Port Stanley Airport, and the time it would take to improve it, would render a route to the Falklands commercially unviable, thus the idea of such a service was dropped. In its place, Hellary and Fields commenced efforts to secure a licence to operate a route Gatwick Airport, London and John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City. During May 1983, a three-day inquiry was conducted, which chose to reject the application following objections from British Airways, British Caledonian and BAA. Hellary and Fields then applied for a licence between Gatwick and Newark, New Jersey, using a 380-seat McDonnell
Asheville Regional Airport (MCO) both via Charlotte. Piedmont was the only airline operating jet service into Asheville by February 1985 according to the OAG with Boeing 727-200 and Fokker F28 Fellowship nonstop flights from Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte and Roanoke as well as direct one stop 727 service from Denver, Miami and New York LaGuardia Airport plus direct one stop F28 service from New York Newark Airport. This same OAG also lists nonstop Delta Connection flights from Atlanta operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) on behalf of Delta on a code sharing basis with de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 and Short 360 turboprops