Originally Posted by
sdsearch
Also, as someone who lives on the West Coast, I disagree with your assertion that these low fares to Europe are from "most American cities". No, only from cities fairly close to Europe (like your Providence and NYC examples). Meanwhile, you picked about as far-away a domestic city to NYC as you could. Again, apples to oranges.
Most of the cheapest US-Europe economy class tickets I've seen this year booked for same-week travel and for next quarter travel have been from California to Northern Europe; comparably-timed NY/Boston/Washington to Europe tickets have been more expensive than the West Coast-Europe tickets.
Intra-Europe flights aren't all that cheap, but having more than just 4-6 legacy carriers in the competitive picture make for a different market outcome than in the US. Consider the profit picture of the stock market-listed major airlines and it becomes clearer that the competitive landscape conditions aren't all that comparable for intra-continental travel.
Intra-Europe rail doesn't do much of anything to lower international, intra-Europe airline ticket pricing even on short haul trips. With some market exceptions.