The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and was originally planned by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and the Falkland Islands.

Soon after changing the name to Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fields sold his shares in the company to Richard Branson in return for unlimited free travel.

[11] Virgin Atlantic filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York on 4 August 2020 as part of a £1.2 billion private refinancing package.

[14] Virgin Atlantic has its origins in a joint endeavour by Randolph Fields, an American-born lawyer, and Alan Hellary, a former chief pilot for British private airline Laker Airways.

[citation needed] However, it was soon determined that the short runway 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.

[15] However, faced with the prospect of direct competition from rival operator PEOPLExpress, a post-deregulation "no frills" discount airline based at Newark Liberty, they decided to secure more funding before proceeding.

[18] 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 limit on everything associated with starting up operations.

Additional aircraft were quickly acquired, and new routes were launched from Gatwick, such as to New York JFK in 1988, Tokyo Narita in 1989, Los Angeles in 1990, Boston in 1991, and Orlando in 1992.

In 1987, Virgin Atlantic launched a service between Luton and Dublin using secondhand Vickers Viscount turboprop aircraft, but this route was withdrawn around 1990.

The decision to abolish the London TDRs and to let Virgin Atlantic operate at Heathrow, in competition with British Airways, became the trigger for BA's so-called "dirty tricks" campaign against the company.

[23][24] During the late 1990s, Virgin Atlantic jets were painted with "No Way BA/AA" as a declaration of its opposition to the attempted merger between British Airways and American Airlines.

[26] In June 2006, US and UK competition authorities investigated alleged price fixing between Virgin Atlantic and British Airways over passenger fuel surcharges.

[33] On 6 October 2014, Virgin Atlantic confirmed that Little Red services between London and Manchester would end in March 2015, and that the Scottish routes would be terminated in September 2015.

In June 2015, Richard Branson stated that Virgin Atlantic had needed the aforementioned deal with Delta to survive, after losses of £233 million between 2010 and 2013.

[40][41][42] In December 2019, Branson announced that he would be scrapping the sale of a 31% stake in the airline to Air France-KLM and that Virgin Group would retain its 51% shareholding.

[43] In the same year, Virgin Atlantic stopped flying to Dubai, a major aviation and tourism hub owing to COVID and issues related to competition.

[44] In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic attracted criticism by asking employees to take eight weeks' unpaid leave.

[49] On June 7, Virgin Atlantic commenced cargo-only flights between Brussels Airport and London Heathrow, feeding the high demand for European cargo into its network via LHR.

[citation needed] In November 2023, the airlines announced plans to resume its flights to Dubai after four years of ceasing operations in the emirate.

[76] On 11 December 2012, Delta Air Lines confirmed the purchase of Singapore Airlines' 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic for £224 million, with plans to develop a transatlantic joint venture.

[104][105] In September 2014, it was reported that Virgin Atlantic was considering closing its domestic brand after suffering heavy losses,[106] with Civil Aviation Authority figures confirming an average seat occupancy level of just 37.6% in 2013.

[112] On 11 January 2019, Virgin Atlantic formed the Connect Airways consortium with Stobart Aviation and Cyrus Capital, to make a takeover bid for Flybe.

[117] On 21 February 2019, the Flybe Group confirmed that its operating assets, including the airline and the website, had indeed been transferred to Connect Airways, despite a last-minute rival bid.

[119][42] In September 2022, Virgin Atlantic announced the introduction of two new sets of uniforms, designed by Vivienne Westwood, as well as a new policy to embrace the concept of gender neutrality.

[120][121] At the same time, the company is making changes to its ticketing systems to allow those holding passports which indicate gender-neutrality to be entered as “U” or “X”, as well as offering a new title of address, “Mx”, on their reservations.

At this time, not all countries offer this option on passports; those that do include the United States, India, Pakistan,[120] Nepal, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, and Iceland.

[citation needed] In October 2006, with the delivery of G-VRED, Virgin Atlantic introduced a new design, with the fuselage painted in metallic silver and a revised tail fin, with red and purple features and the logo.

[137] In 2019, one of the airline's Boeing 747-400 aircraft (Registration G-VROS) was renamed from English Rose to Forever Young in honour of lost colleagues.

The current livery dates from 2010 and returns to the "Eurowhite" design featuring purple billboard titles on the fuselage, slight changes to the Scarlet Lady, and new red metallic paint for the aircraft's tail and engines.

[139] Each of the characters, separately named Daley, Meera, Oscar, Ray, and Zadie, were styled and posed with Union flags similarly to the Flying Lady.