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
Virgin Atlantic Little Red International (BMI) which gave them a monopoly on UK mainland flights from Heathrow. In order for the deal to be completed, the European Union Competition Commissioner decreed that BA would have to give up 14 of BMI's landing slots at Heathrow to comply with EU competition regulations. 12 of these slots were set aside for domestic usage, which were bought by Virgin Atlantic after they outbid Aer Lingus for the required British domestic operating licence. Virgin announced that they would set up Virgin Atlantic Little Red as a subsidiary to use these slots to cover domestic UK mainland routes as