Why are short US/Canada flights so expensive?
 

I was hoping someone could explain to me how/why flights from NYC to YYZ (Toronto) are always so expensive? The flight is direct, and on a really small plane and takes about 45 minutes of air time.. Why are their fares over $300 for them?

Are there any suggestions to reduce the fare to get to Toronto?

put in high speed rail.

Why?

Because people pay the fares.

It's really that simple, as long as they keep putting people on the aircraft, then the fares are fine.

Don't forget the high amount of cross-border taxes/fees/customs, etc that would not apply to a similar-length domestic segment. These may not be as noticeable if you are flying, say, YYZ-LAX since one expects that fare to be high. Then again, $300 for YYZ-NYC doesn't strike me as being terribly high for a heavy business travel route.

My home airport is YYZ, and if you can find a $300 fare for YYZ-NYC, I say take it ! I've rarely found fares for that low, with the exception of getting lucky on AC seat sales.

YYZ is one of the most expensive airports to fly into/out of, period. Add to that Air Canada's monopoly on so many routes, and it creates a funny-smelling situation.

What I have been doing recently is driving over to Buffalo and flying out from there. Last month, I saved $300 on a BUF-DCA vs YYZ-DCA route. Im flying again at the end of the month to save $200 for a BUF-JFK vs YYZ-JFK route.

Taxes on both side represent a good chunk of the airfare. Spring/Summer prices tend to be higher than the winter. $300 at present is not bad.

As others have mentioned, you can fly to BUF and bus it from there.

Alternates include
1) checking out Porter (EWR-YYZ) when they offer a promo code. They seem to be frequent and give up to 20% off.

2) check out the weekend savers. I have seen prices in <$230 from UA, AC and AA.

3) Try Lan Airlines (JFK-YYZ). The tickets seem to however around $250-$275.

Prices may also go down, if and when Westjet gets landing spots from DL, though that is dependent on the USAirways/DL LGA/DCA swaps which are currently being contested.

Of course, if you really want to save money, megabus offers prices as low as $1 each way! However, its 10 hours on a bus!

It's the same with most/all the short "International" flights...

Going to cost us nearly $500 each to get from MEX to DTW.... Ouch! (Unless we want to fly on AC via YYZ and leave MEX in the middle of the night... not!)

At least when we fly in via YVR there are ground transport options to SEA.....

It would be nice if the USA had an Air Asia or EasyJet equivalent.

If the airlines were making $ hand over fist, I would imagine other carriers catching on and providing the same flight to and from.. market forces will provide equilibrium eventually.. but it seems the actual cost of the flight, airport fees, taxes, etc seem to be that high.