Late in 1983 a 31-year-old ambitious US lawyer by the name of Randolph Fields approached music tycoon Richard Branson with a proposal for a trans-Atlantic airline tentatively called British Atlantic Airlines. After a favorable review by a consultant, the brash 33-year-old English entrepreneur, himself the son of a former air hostess, eventually bit on the idea, figuring that running an airline would be "fun" and probably "sexy" as well. He later explained that, "I decided there must be room for another airline when I spent two days trying to get through to People Express," adding: "In the Eighties my gut feeling was that airlines were crap. I hated spending time on 'planes. I thought we could create the kind of airline I'd like."
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