Decoding Airline Ticket Costs

Airline prices vary alot. The price if you fly from Boston to Long Beach, California is 6 cents per mile. If you fly from Boston to Philadelphia, it is $1.22 per mile. That seems incredible. But The Wall Street Journal article You Paid What for That Flight? It Can Cost More to Fly to Hartford Than Barcelona. What Airlines Consider in Setting Prices has an explanation. Here are some reasons:

"The price you pay for a ticket is driven by a number of variables: competition, types of passengers, the route and operating costs. But the biggest factor, by far, is whether discount airlines fly in a market. Low-cost carriers often set the price in markets because competitors feel compelled to match that price or risk losing customers and flying empty seats. And when they aren't there, big airlines behave radically differently when setting prices.

"It's the number of competitors and the quality of the competition," said airfare analyst and consultant Bob Harrell.

The kinds of travelers in a market heavily influence what prices airlines charge as well. If the route has lots of business travelers—like Hartford to Washington—then airlines set prices high knowing customers will be less sensitive to higher prices. If the route is populated by price-sensitive travelers —think Florida cities and Las Vegas—then airlines set prices low in order to fill up planes."

And

"And when there's not low-fare competition, prices soar. The most-expensive average domestic ticket in the first quarter was $786 for round-trip flights between San Francisco and Philadelphia, according to the DOT. That 2,521-mile route is dominated by United and US Airways, who are competitors but also partners in the Star Alliance. Fly to Boston from San Francisco—183 miles farther by air than Philadelphia—and you paid an average $296 less round-trip in the first quarter, according to DOT. The difference: JetBlue Airways has 17% of the San Francisco-Boston market, but none of the San Francisco-Philadelphia market.

High fixed costs do make short routes more expensive, per mile. But airport costs like terminal rents and landing fees and even the expense of buying or leasing jets, pale in comparison to the two biggest expenses at airlines: labor and fuel. Both go higher as flights get longer."

And

"High prices do catch the attention of low-priced competitors. In the first quarter this year, the most expensive market in the country, per mile, was Boston to Philadelphia, a US Airways-dominated route, where the average fare was a whopping $684. Southwest began serving that route in June.

And now? US Airways' highest coach fare is $281 round-trip—$400 less than its first-quarter average fare."

I like the part about high fixed costs. Suppose a plane costs $500 million. If it flys a 100 mile route, say 1,000 times, that is $5,000 per mile. If it flies a 1,000 mile route 1,000 times, that is $500 per mile. Of course, that is not the only cost. But it does make a difference.