Peter Greenberg: Flying From Big Cities to Small Cities

Q: Hi, Peter. Why does it cost more to fly from a big city to another big city (e.g., Wilmington, N.C., to Atlanta) than it does to fly from a smaller city (e.g., Jacksonville, N.C.)?

–Mary Alice Sneed, Wilmington, N.C.

A: Actually, it usually is the other way around. The real key is the individual market of the smaller cities, and another factor is where larger cities feed longer flights (especially hub cities). For example, if you want to fly from Austin, Texas, to Tokyo, it might only cost $850, if the flight connects through Dallas. But if you want to fly only from Austin to Dallas, that flight might cost $500, because you're potentially taking the seat of a Tokyo-bound passenger, which is worth more revenue for the airline. Welcome to the dark science of yield management.

Allegiant, Delta, and US Airways—all serve the Wilmington airport—while Delta, United, and US Airways serve Jacksonville, N.C. I found nonstop flights from Jacksonville (OAJ) to Atlanta (ATL) in October for about $482, and nonstops from Wilmington, N.C., (ILM) to Atlanta for $494, so there isn’t much price difference that I could see. (Delta flights are operated by Atlantic Southeast, a Delta regional carrier.) The prices to Atlanta from both airports go down considerably if you take flights that connect through other cities, however.