I've never got a satisfactory answer to why airlines in the UK (BA especially) always put on a long face when talking about short-haul flights, say they lose money on them, while Transatlantic flights are described as their money-spinners, post-9/11 blip apart.

It costs me MORE for a BA flight from London to Edinburgh (350 miles) return than it does from London to Miami return (4,000 miles)! Yet the crews do 4 sectors in a day on these internal flights. The load factor is often higher.