Some of you may have read my article about business class fares between Heathrow and New York JFK recently. Things have become even more interesting since then.

Last Friday, British Airways announced its traffic figures for the month of September and noted an 8.6% fall year on year in premium traffic.

Then on Wednesday this week, Air France announced that it was to launch services on the Heathrow-JFK route from next spring. At the same time, it has cancelled its Heathrow to Los Angeles service in the light of current economic conditions.

The launch of Air France’s services – one flight a day with three classes – will coincide with the introduction of fully flat seats on services on the route operated by its SkyTeam partner Delta, which operates two flights a day. The move will mean that SkyTeam frequent flyers will now have a first class option between the two airports and the first truly flat seats from the alliance.

Yet these three services a day are still a long way from the 12 flights operated every day by the oneworld alliance’s British Airways (seven flights) and American Airlines (five).

The Star Alliance is noticeably absent from one of the most important business routes in the world. United Airlines flew on the route for years in the pre-Open Skies but sold its route authority to Delta in 2006 for $21 million. Continental Airlines, currently in SkyTeam but planning to move to the Star Alliance, flies from Heathrow to New York but to Newark rather than JFK. Whether Star airlines Lufthansa or Bmi decide to join the LHR-JFK party remains to be seen.

The other major player on the Heathrow-JFK route is Virgin Atlantic, which carries more than a million passengers between the two each year. The airline is cutting one of its JFK services this winter but that will still leave it with three a day.

Competition between these airlines for a declining number of premium passengers, due to the financial crisis, will be intense. Expect a bloodbath on business class fares on the route to next spring.