Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Can Anyone Explain Airline Costs?

I just got off the phone with one of my dear friends in Korea who is trying to find cheap plane tickets to visit various friends in the US when she arrives here in December. Can anyone explain to me why it costs almost 400 dollars to fly from Washington D.C. to Columbus, OH (a trip roughly 1.5 hours) and THE SAME DAY it would only cost her 260 dollars to fly from D.C. to Salt Lake City? I just don't get it...

5 comments:

  1. Apparently more people fly from DC to SLC. The whole supply and demand thing.

    Wikipedia says:
    A total of 22,029,488 passengers flew through Salt Lake City International Airport in 2007, representing a 2.19 % increase over 2006. The airport currently ranks as the twenty-second busiest airport in the United States in terms of total passengers.

    Whereas:
    Traffic reached 7,719,340 passengers in 2007.

    Plus, SLC is a Delta hub, so they have a bunch of flights already.

    Seems stupid on its face, though.

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  2. Sorry, the second stat is for Columbus

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  3. ha ha! wow, Jordan, I can't believe you went out and did all that data research just for a flustered query on my blog! You are a gem, ya know that? :)

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  4. I have no idea. I always think it's weird. Some airports don't have as many planes come through, so those seats usually cost more. Anyway, airline tickets are just pricey. Blah. I hope she finds some good deals.

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  5. Southwest actually has a bunch of really cheap tickets for a limited time. I don't know how much that helps you back east, but . . .

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