Is there any reason why tickets to eastern US cities are cheaper than tickets to western US cities?

Question

I'm from Texas. My tickets to NYC earlier this year were in the $200's, but in searching for tickets to California, it's at least $100 more.

Answer 1

It's probably a combination of operating costs and supply/demand issues.

It's certainly not volume, as the number of passengers coming into western airports is pretty consistant with the rest of the nation (Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Honolulu, and Las Vegas all get well in excess of 30 million passengers a year).

- It costs more to operate in the west because of the long distances between their own cities AND eastern cities alike (raises fuel costs), lack of fully utilized secondary airports (high gate usage fees), and very competitive job markets in the hubs (paying generously, higher minimum wages). As this means more problems for the airlines, they pass the extra hardship onto you.

- Unlike the northeast, the west also lacks a good ground-based shipping network (via trains and rivers). Thus, the region is far, far more dependent on air transport than the east. That places pressure on the demand for cargo space.

Add to that the constant stream of tourists escaping nasty, cold eastern weather in the winter (there is really no such thing as the "off-season" for tourism in places like California, Nevada, and Hawaii)...as well as the vast masses of Asians coming in from the Pacific Rim all year long who use the west as their primary point of entry...and you begin to understand why the prices go up.

Answer 2

because more people travel in and out of the eatern cities.....their cost per person is much lower compared to western city travelers....and thats why theres also more frequent flights between teh eastern cities too.

Answer 3

supply and demand