Originally Posted by
Globaliser
These are not "nonsense". They exist because air fares have largely been deregulated, and so prices are largely set by market forces, ie supply and demand linked to what the market perceives to be more or less valuable.
If you don't like these effects of a free market, the answer is probably pretty simple: re-regulate air fares. Setting a single cents-per-mile rate for all air travel would probably do the job.
Free market comes with a big asterisk in this industry given extremely high cost of entry regulated nature of business and minimal or no competition for many routes.
Would a short trip on a train cost multiples of longer one just because demand for shorter is different? How about bus? 10 mi taxi ride cheaper than 2 mi because of different demand? We are used to airline pricing models but they are very bizarre relative to transportation pricing in general.