Glad you found an example so that we can examine the fundamental difference between the airline industry and other businesses.
Let's compare the cost of a computer and the cost of an airline seat. We are equating the individual computer with the individual airline seat.
The difference is that a computer has a low, and almost fixed, cost in materials. Once the design work is completed and the production facilities are on line the cost of producing an individual computer is very predictable and falls dramatically. The variable costs of computers are amortised over hundreds of thousands of units over a relatively long period of time. To look at things simplistically, after a certain break-even point in the production run almost every machine sold is pure profit. You can afford to sell machines later in the production run at reduced rates because you have recouped your expenses. However, compare the price differential between a computer which is new on the market, with new features, with a computer that has been around for a while. You will see that, although some computers are indeed cheap you still pay a premium price for the top of the line, new items. Although computers may be cheap, on an average, an individual computer can still be an expensive item.
This situation has a parallel in the airline industry but with a difference. Whereas each computer produced is an inherently low cost item after the break even point is reached each individual airline seat is still a high cost item. That is why break even load factors are so high. Once the machinery is in place a computer plant can make an extra thousand units purely for the cost of materials but every airline ticket sold generates extra cost in terms of services and material required, baggage handlers, food service, fuel etc. Computer production cost are amortised over hundreds of thousands of units , airline seat costs are amortised over a few hunderd at most. It is as though you have to start a new computer production line for each flight. Each flight generates its own costs which must be amortised over the number of tickets sold. The benefits of volume are not as great in the airline industry as they are in the computer industry,
Certain costs of reaching the break even point for a flight are variable items ie they reduce as the number of tickets sold increase. However, a very large portion of the expense items do not show a dramatic fall off with volume (the number of tickets sold). For example the amount of fuel used on a flight is relatively constant because the bulk of the fuel used lifts the zero fuel weight of the aircraft rather than the passengers. There are advantages to scale and volume but they are not as marked as in the example of the computer industry. Unfortunately, the high cost items, ie fuel, represent a very large proportion of the production costs and their price is very volatile. The airline industry also suffers from unique variables such as weather and 9/11. If your production line breaks and ruins a hundred computers the computer maker has lost very little in expenses. If one hundred airline flights are diverted because of weather the financial cost and disruption are enormous because each individual flight is a high cost item.
The computer industry is still a developing technology where new designs and production techniques are being introduced which allow each new wave of products to be technologically improved whilst lowering production costs. Aviation, under the present financial model, is a mature (overmature?) industry where new techniques produce relatively minor cost reductions.
A more educated model of cost control is required in the airline industry but it must be coupled with a more intelligent pricing structure which ensures that seats are not sold for less than they cost to produce. The computer industry discounts its products after their useful production life has been completed and it has new products on offer. The airline industry discounts the very products it is currently selling and that it needs to sell a a fair price to survive. The airline industry, and the airline passenger, must get used to the idea that airline ticket pricing is a dynamic activity if ticket prices are to be kept low. One day it is going to cost you $50 to go see Grandma, the next day it might cost you $150.