Let me put another spin on this...

Witin Europe flights are mainly taken for business, there are several reasons for this including:
- Leisure travel is mainly taken on CHEAPER charter airlines.
- Europe does not have the demographic shift the US has (ie. people do not move as far away from there home and therefore do not have to travel by plane to visit relatives).

Therefore the majority of scheduled flight are business trips (in which case price sensitivity is less of an issue) or premium level leisure, where people are paying extra for a better service than they would receive on a charter.

Ok, this gives the airlines a higher yield per mile than US domestic flights (this is a fact!) and therefore the service they offer is higher.

That is what we have come to expect and demand in Europe. There are of course a few exceptions!

Another point is that the percentage of paying premium (club/first/business whatever it is called passengers is much higher that in the US. Typically 50% of the plane of routes to/from major business centres.

There is also much less upgrading in Europe, the people at the premium end are a lot more likely to have paid for it, and therefore again increased revenue over US carriers.

They having been said, I do not believe the standard of service offered by US domestic carriers would be tollerated by main-stream Euro-Travellers. Euro-Travellers expect and demand free food and drink irresepective of the flight time; orderly boarding; use of lounges with free drinks and food.

In a nut-shell, in Europe you can get flights which are as cheap per mile as in the US, but a very high numbers of flighers don't (they buf full-fare flex) but a higher standard of service is expected in Europe.

In terms of traffic volumes, there is about the same amount of inter-euro traffic as there is US domestic.
MF