Originally Posted by
Science Goy
Pricing is in principle based on supply and demand between the origin and final destination. Presumably there's more demand for JNB-ATL than JNB-NYC, so the latter costs less even though it involves a stop in ATL.
That's not quite right. It has to do with the lack of competition in ATL, whereas NYC (which is actually three airports, EWR, JFK and LGA) has more competition on the same routes. Do an FT search on the "Southwest Effect" for an example of how competition effects monopolized airport pricing.