Virgin Atlantic capital markets, the first time in Europe a company has used airport take-off and landing slots to generate money in this way. Virgin Atlantic has codeshare agreements with the following airlines: Virgin Atlantic uses a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircraft. All the Boeing 747-400s are based at Gatwick and Manchester and operate routes to Orlando, Las Vegas and the Caribbean (Gatwick only); Airbus A330-300s are also used on selected routes from Gatwick to the Caribbean. The Airbus A330-300s also operate from Manchester to New York-JFK, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco. Glasgow and Belfast International Airport offer a seasonal
Virgin Atlantic Douglas DC-10. However, faced with the prospect of direct competition from rival operator PEOPLExpress, a post-deregulation "no frills" discount airline based at Newark, they decided to secure more funding before proceeding. Fields met British entrepreneur Richard Branson at a party in London during which he proposed a business partnership. After protracted and testy negotiations, Fields agreed to a reduced stake of 25% in the airline (which was renamed "Virgin Atlantic") and became its first chairman. Following disagreements over operations, Fields agreed to be bought out for an initial sum of £1 million with further payment on Virgin's first dividend. As