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
Longest flights distance for a variety of reasons, such as avoiding severe weather, taking advantage of favorable winds aloft, detouring around closed airspace, and diverting around war zones. For the purposes of this table, multiple flights operated by the same airline between the same airports are counted as one flight, while different airlines operating between the same airports are counted separately. Also, each airport pair is counted separately, even though some cities have multiple airports supporting long-range flights (e.g. Kennedy and Newark airports serving New York City and Haneda and Narita serving Tokyo). <br> A direct flight between an origin and final