Virgin Atlantic a result of a High Court action, this additional payment was received shortly before Fields' death in 1997. On 22 June 1984, Virgin Atlantic operated its inaugural scheduled service, flown between Gatwick and Newark using a leased Boeing 747-200 (registration ), christened "Maiden Voyager", which had been formerly operated by Aerolíneas Argentinas. From the onset, its activities were augmented by leveraging existing Virgin Group resources, such as tickets being sold at Virgin Megastores record shops. Part of Richard Branson's declared approach to business is to either succeed within the first year or exit the market; this ethos includes a one-year
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