Why the flight fee from PIT to FLG Arizona is much more expensive than to Cancun
score:9
Because they think more people will pay more to fly to Flagstaff than Cancún. It's as simple as that: airlines set prices to maximize their profit.
In this case, Cancun is normally thought of as a budget leisure destination. The airline knows from long experience that many vacationers headed to Cancun will simply find another place to go if the flight is too expensive. They believe travelers to Flagstaff will pay more right now. Prices may be seasonal, especially for these destinations, and are based on supply and demand.
Competition also plays a role. The airline knows who flies between the cities, their prices, and how convenient their connections are, and they'll price accordingly. Multiple carriers competing aggressively on a route will typically drive prices down, while they generally remain high when few alternatives exist.
And when it comes to Flagstaff, there's no competition. Flagstaff is a small airport served only by one carrier, American Eagle, with a couple of flights a day to nearby Phoenix. The airline pretty much has you over a barrel because you have only a couple of choices: pay whatever they want to go to Flagstaff, fly to Phoenix (or an even further away airport) and make your way to Flagstaff some other way, travel by a less convenient method such as a bus or trains, give up and go someplace else entirely, or give up and don't travel at all. In contrast, you can get to Cancun through connections on several different airlines. American knows this, and will happily use its monopoly over flights to Flagstaff to charge you for the convenience of flying there rather than making you drive from a farther away airport.
But the real answer is that airline ticket prices don't make "sense" in the way you're trying to understand them. They cost as much as the airline thinks the market will bear in a way that maximizes their profit, not on a per-mile basis or other "logical" structure.
Upvote:0
It's basically "whatever the market will bear" with some important exceptions. Fare history for the city pair plays a role and helps predict the future. A carrier new to the route may lower the fare to attract business. Flagstaff has relatively few people, and by laws of chance, there will be far fewer people going PIT-FLG than PIT-CUN.
Also, it costs a carrier quite a lot to touch down anywhere, so those costs must be spread between only a few passengers.
Finally, Flagstaff is at high altitude, with adverse winter weather. Both factors increase operating costs. With far lower fares, some greeters may consider a quick dash down I-17 to PHX (Phoenix) a good alternative.
Upvote:2
It is called supply and demand. There is more competition going to Cancun hence lower more competitve airfares. Less competition gping to Flagstaff.
More post
- 📝 Using mobile internet with a Elephone P7000 in the USA
- 📝 B1/B2 vs ESTA - Airline
- 📝 How to check safety of car rental offer in Spain?
- 📝 Is there a guide regarding places least known/visited in Japan?
- 📝 Is travel to the Schengen visa issuing country mandatory?
- 📝 Will my passport be considered damaged?
- 📝 Visit visa for Canada from Bangladesh
- 📝 Compact, portable alternative to a bathroom scale
- 📝 schengen visa refused from french embassy pakistan
- 📝 Are soft copies of ID proof acceptable for domestic air travel in India?
- 📝 VWP entry from USA to Canada then back to USA
- 📝 Transit Visa in Munich (for Mexico travel) for Indian passport holder
- 📝 After a removal and entry refusal, will a UK visa application be considered on merit or automatically refused?
- 📝 Where to buy tickets for the DART rail service in Dublin?
- 📝 Urgent help with visa application
- 📝 Booking a backup flight for short layover
- 📝 What do I do if I don't know my previous visa number for the Indian e-Tourist visa application?
- 📝 Can I get in to London after being deported in Ireland?
- 📝 Transfer in Amsterdam International Airport
- 📝 How long can I stay in Nepal on a tourist visa?
- 📝 Are Letters of Invitation (LOI) required if visiting Russia with an APEC Business Travel Card?
- 📝 Is it legal to bring back seashells from Ireland
- 📝 Schengen Visa Valid on arrival in Schengen State and not while boarding flight
- 📝 Implications of extending or getting a new visa for UK?
- 📝 Proof of funds for 3 month USA trip?
- 📝 How should I answer the ESTA question about a passport or national identity card?
- 📝 Filing consumer protection complaint about Swiss Air
- 📝 Applying for Schengen Visa while near I-20 expiration. Would it affect my application?
- 📝 Applying for UK Visa from USA (CA)
- 📝 What international calling card can be purchased online?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why the flight fee from PIT to FLG Arizona is much more expensive than to Cancun
- 📝 Why is buying an airline ticket from the company more expensive than from an aggregator like Skyscanner?
- 📝 Why is a single return ticket more expensive than separate tickets for the two sectors?
- 📝 Why is the flight from US cities to Vietnam cheaper than from Vietnam to a US city?
- 📝 Flight cost from A->B/B->A is $2k more than C->A->B/B->A->C. What are the dos and don'ts
- 📝 Why is the flight path from Taipei to Tianjin not a straight line?
- 📝 Why is SENTRI more expensive than Global Entry?
- 📝 Why does it cost significantly more for a trip from Nicaragua to NYC than vice versa?
- 📝 Will I be able to pass through immigration and customs from foreign country to the U.S with damaged green card after an absence of more than one year?
- 📝 Why is Uber in Rome more expensive than a regular taxi?
- 📝 Why is Eurail more expensive than Interrail?
- 📝 Why is the round trip from A to B 1.5 times as expensive as the round trip from B to A?
- 📝 Baltimore to Las Vegas- why does the flight path change from day to day
- 📝 Do I require a UK transit visa when travelling home from the US more than 6 months after last entering the US?
- 📝 Can booking a flight or an hotel stay be more expensive during the weekend?
- 📝 Why is a flight going west longer than the same flight going west to east?
- 📝 How much time should I allocate for transiting from the flight gate to the train station at Munich Airport?
- 📝 Why are flights from some countries much cheaper than others?
- 📝 Why is Mumbai - London - Dallas - Denver more expensive than Bangalore - Mumbai - London - Dallas - Denver?
- 📝 Will renting a car ad hoc in NYC be much more expensive than booking it beforehand?
- 📝 Why are direct flights more expensive than connecting
- 📝 Connecting Jet airways flight Mumbai to Jaipur, after flying in from Frankfurt. What would be the luggage allowance?
- 📝 Why did BA want to read the sequence number from my boarding pass?
- 📝 How to apply for a Schengen visa from the UK if my visa expires in less than 90 days?
- 📝 Will a green card holder have problems returning to the USA after more than six months away?
- 📝 No-show vs cancel the flight when one-way ticket was twice as expensive
- 📝 Am I eligible for compensation if the flight was cancelled due to bad weather and I got rerouted from Europe?
- 📝 How can I find Flea Markets in the USA with more than 1,000 vendors?
- 📝 Why did Myanmar get removed from the list of countries on the international driving permit issued by the AAA sometime between 2016 and 2019?
- 📝 Does the Havnebus 991/992 ferry in Copenhagen give a similar experience to the more expensive Canal Tours