Don't be silly! Don't you comprehend that for almost every commodity, product and service in the world, the local price may be heavily affected by the level of local demand (and the supply available to address that demand)?

Look at the "sticker" on a new car at a dealer's next time you shop. The posted "Delivery Charge" is the same across the Continental US, no matter how far from the assembly plant the dealer is located. Are Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan, Chrysler "playing fair".

I know of two truck dealerships barely 100 miles apart. At one, a small country town where a low volume dealer is located, rarely with more than a couple of pickups on the lot, the price of a new truck will be many hundreds, often thousands more than at a well known regional outlet where there may be over 100 of the same model, similarly equipped, in stock (as well as several hundred similar trucks from other manufacturers. While "relative" demand my be about equal, supply and availability combine to reduce prices (with sales volume vastly increasing manufacturer incentives - read "kickbacks" - to a dealer).

In your case, the airline has routinely empty seats between the small market and the hub, low demand and high supply. The tickets are discounted in an attempt to improve overall revenues. The other side of the coin....the cost of driving to/from, plus airport parking in the small market would likely far outweigh the $100 savings in your case.

No matter how inept are the visible results, airline bean counters can count, although beyond the total of fingers and toes available in the "counting room", the results become predictably on the red side of the ledger.