the economics of the aircraft are also very different covering shorter distances, using less fuel, less crew, less costly airports etc
The point being, are those costs up to ten times less than the equivalent trans-atlantic? Of course not. Fares and routes quite simply cannot be compared like that.
Competition and choice is good, but at the end of the day you get what you pay for. £130 for a flight to Stornoway at 9000ft, unpressurised, in the winter. And if the Bandeirante goes tech, what is the options? A long wait at Prestwick for a repair or a trip back up to Glasgow.
I think I'd rather pay the extra £80 to travel in relative comfort knowing that Loganair have the resources to get me there if this start going wrong.
I am sure that you would agree that this is excesive
Well, no. I'm not slating Air Caledonia, good luck to them, but the H&I operation is pretty unique and to expect BA to offer the service it does through Loganair whilst charging bucket shop prices is pretty unrealistic I think.