higher prices stick at the gas pumps but not airlines?

[Icelandair]

why is it that every time some snake who owns a gas station raise his gas prices everyone else in town gleefully raises theirs as well, but when an airline tries to raise their ticket prices nobody joins them?

 

[njcapt]

Elastic versus inelastic demand.

Travel by car, cigarettes, beer (in my case, at least), the consumer will pay a lot more before reducing consumption.

Airline travel, grocery produce, beer (for most other people), the consumer will wait for a sale or do without.

Economically its not quite that simple, but you get the picture. If somebody made airline travel as addictive as crack and cut back the supply slightly, we could sell seats for $2000 apiece.