My favourite thing about this topic is when you read about people complaining about airfares to regional towns being so high and that they could pay the same or less to go from a capital to capital.
A classic example is Rex! people say the air fares from Mount gambier are too high to go to Melbourne or Adelaide. I Think it may be to do with 34 seats over 200nm compared to 180 seats over 400nm, especially if you are only half full or less!