Not to be sarcastic, but if fares like $49/one-way based on a roundtrip ticket were to go away, would airlines be able to raise fares and revenue per avail seat mile to make certain routes profitable ?

A couple snipets from former lives:

If Brand X were to raise their fare $1 on the route : Anytown USA to Your Town USA; Brand Y would be listed as the carrier with the lowest fare, while Brand X would be listed as the carrier with the highest fare. Sounds silly, but not all passengers are brand-loyal so much so as they are pocketbook loyal.

"Give me the cheapest ticket !!!" And the result: Brand Y, even though Brand X is only $1 more.

Second tidbit: When I worked at Brand X we were the small fish on the trans-con market: JFK to SFO/LAX. We competed against two of the big carriers (pre-Jetblue). We wanted to fill our planes up by lowering fares on the route JFK to SFO and JFK to LAX. In response, the two big carriers reduced all the fares into and out of STL which basically poached traffic away from us at our mainstay hub.

Is this illegal...nope. Is this a form of oligopoly...arguably, yes. The price on the transcon market was set by the big guys (pre-Jetblue) to cover their costs and any small fish that wanted to cut into that traffic was going to have to march in step or face the wrath of the big guys.

FF