No we are not talking about the Aer Lingus style €5 business class bargains we saw last year.

Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are expected to fight it out for business class passengers by lowering prices in the face of large reductions in demand seen as a result of businesses cutting back on costs in 2009.

BA reported a 12% fall in business class passenger numbers for December compared to only a 3% reduction in capacity. In the past airlines have been reluctant to reduce business class fares seeing the passengers as less price sensitive than economy passengers.

Virgin Atlantic’s business class product is known as Virgin upper class. With the price cuts a return trip to New York will fall by 40 percent to £1,099 and a return to Boston by 38 percent to £1,199.

See the Virgin special offer page with all the routes and prices here

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