It's not that domestic fares are so high, it's that overseas fares are low.

Example, I fly YOW-YYC about once/twice per month. Taxes in, it usually costs between $CAD 570 and 651. Then you take a flight YOW-LHR and it costs $750, taxes in, for double the mileage.

The thing that I don't understand are the fare basises (is that a word?) to the US - where a T+ or Lat fare comes in at $149 (YOW-LAS via DEN) and a T fare comes in at $224? How does that make any sense??

In terms of $/AE mile, yeah it's pretty high in Canada. What I don't understand is why the hell it's so high on cash cow routes like anything to YYC (these always seem to be oversold). We need more competitiveness in the country, and WS just doesn't cut it anymore (ah for a return to the days of jetsgo with their $1 saturday night specials).

my two cents.