Since it was founded in 1984, Virgin Atlantic Airways has become Britain's second largest longhaul airline serving the worlds major cities. Virgin Atlantic is the quintessential Virgin story. It has every ingredient, the small newcomer taking on the giant and complacent establishment, the people's champion introducing better service and lower costs for customers with a reputation for quality and innovative product development.

Virgin Atlantic was developed as an offshoot of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which was better known at the time as a leading light in the world of pop and rock music. In early 1984, the then young and unorthodox chairman of Virgin was surprised when he was contacted by an Anglo-US lawyer called Randolph Fields with a proposal for an involvement in a new airline called British Atlantic. Fields originally planned to operate a 747 service to New York's JFK airport in an all business configuration - an idea that was denied to him by British licensing authorities.

Recognising that, like the music business, aviation was a consumer led industry, and tired of the conveyor belt attitude to passengers and cargo, Branson decided it was time for Virgin to diversify and Virgin Atlantic Airways was established.

On 22 June 1984, Virgin Atlantic's inaugural flight to Newark took place. The airline's aim was simple: "To provide the highest quality innovative service at excellent value for money."

Aircontact was initially appointed by Virgin Atlantic as a General Sales Agent to handle the cargo product for the airline. Realising the potential revenue cargo generated, Virgin decided to set up a department to handle the cargo product in house, namely Virgin Atlantic Cargo. With a team of 10 driven by Alan Chambers, they set out to revolutionise the cargo market.

From those early days, Virgin Atlantic Cargo has grown from strength to strength, with facilities at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow airports and 59 offices spanning 32 countries. Despite the airline's growth, the service still remains customer driven with an emphasis on value for money, quality, fun and innovation.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo offers capacity on the airlines longhaul services from Heathrow to Boston, Cape Town, Delhi, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Lagos, Los Angeles, Miami, New York (JFK and Newark), San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo and Washington, from Gatwick to Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Las Vegas, Orlando, Port Harcourt, St. Lucia and Tobago and from Manchester to Orlando.