JetAmerica Offering $9 Airplane Tix

Airplanes typically tend to favor bigger markets; this is an obvious economic trend based on the fact that more people and more money reside in said markets.

But just like .OBP was ignored for years in baseball (see Michael Lewis' Moneyball), the large-market trending of airlines creates a value void of sorts: which is exactly why JetAmerica is offering $9 airplane flights from various mid-size markets.

Clearwater, Fla.-based JetAmerica said 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will
start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.;
Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark
Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights — from
Toledo to Minneapolis — starting Aug. 14.

And the reason they're flying into places like this is that, as mentioned above, the mid-size markets have been ignored. Oh, that and they're getting subsidies from the various geographical locations in order to provide service there for cheap, cheap rates.

Yes, the word "subsidy" sends a shiver down my spine too, but remember, these are coming from the airfields themselves. It's not some awkward GM/Big Tobacco situation.