What are the key events that have shaped Virgin Atlantic to date?
Virgin Atlantic Airways came from an idea taken to Richard Branson by Randolph Fields in the early 1980’s. Original called British Atlantic Airways, VAA first flew from Gatwick to Newark with their single 747 on 22nd June 1984. Branson took the torch from Sir Freddie Laker’s Skytrain operation – which had been the pioneer of discounted transatlantic air travel, but suffered at the hands of BA’s price war to eliminate the competition. Virgin too didn’t have an easy ride with BA, and won substaintial damages from them after successfully proving their ‘Dirty Tricks’ campaign. Two years after their first flight to Newark, Virgin introduced a scheduled service to Miami in 1986. This was followed two years later with Orlando in 1988. By the end of the 1980’s, Virgin added a slew of new routes including Tokyo in May 1989, JFK in August 1989 and Los Angeles in May 1990. By their tenth anniversay in 1994, Virgin were flying to Boston, Hong Hong and San Francisco. Virgin also created regional se
