Why are flight costs so much higher when the departure city is the hub of a major airline?

Question

This is for my marketing class - answers from people who work in the travel industry would be especially helpful!

Many Americans use round-trip, one-day air travel for business purposes. Prices for these and many other flights vary dramatically, depending on the city of departure.

For example, if the departure city is a hub of a major airline, consumers can expect to pay more than they would from a nearby city. In October 2006, a day trip on Delta Airlines from Cincinatti (a Delta hub) to Washington D.C. and back cost $1,038.60. A flight to Washington D.C. from Columbus, Ohio, two hours northeast of Cincinatti, cost $274.71. This is $763.89, or 78 percent less.




***The question is: What is the reason for this cost difference?

Answer 1

Without seeing what you researched if you will it is difficult to answer, because I personally don't think it has anything to do with the "hub" as you say. It has to do with availability, fares, fares out of certain cities which varies, demand, etc. If you were comparing and saw a price of just over a $1,000 good chance the flights were almost sold out and then out of the other city there was plenty of space.

This is where you find price differences. Sometimes it will be vice versa. Just because there is plenty of space doesn't mean it will automatically be lower than another city. Again depends on the fares the airlines release out of the cities you are looking at. The fares have several rules such as routing, class of service, book by, travel within, etc.

Again without physically seeing what you looked at, I am unable to answer further for you.

Answer 2

there is way less opposition in hub cities, so airlines in lots of instances will fee extra there and subsidize commute from different places. apparently, it may in lots of instances be extra fee-effective to originate from yet another city, connect on the hub, and then proceed to a trip spot, than to fly right away from the hub to the trip spot. a large occasion of it rather is Minneapolis, the main hub for Northwest airlines. it rather is 1000's of greenbacks extra fee-effective to fly from interior of sight airports like Rochester, even nonetheless it is going to nevertheless be on a Northwest flight and nevertheless connect at MSP.