Originally Posted by
hughw
And is it not of interest that many fares on regional carriers are far higher per mile than on mainline routes?
The regional carriers don't benefit from those fares, since they are paid a set fee per passenger mile in their contracts with the mainline carriers.
The mainline carriers pay the regional carriers this set fee, the regional carriers, in turn, are thus justified in keeping their costs extremely low, while the mainline carriers, who are actually selling the tickets, are free to manipulate the free market to earn as much money as possible.
In all fairness, many of these regional routes have inconsistent LF's, so that, even with low costs, they are not always profitable for the mainline carriers (although they are usually profitable for the regionals, for whom the only variable cost risk factor is the cost of fuel).