Consumers who can still afford to fly have been helped this year by the sharp drop in the price of an airline ticket, down 13 percent in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

But there are exceptions to the lower fares, exceptions that continue to baffle travelers from the Philadelphia area. When the only nonstop service on a route is by one of the older major airlines, you may still pay a huge premium.

Dan Crain, a Center City resident who works in financial services, is among those stunned by the huge difference in what US Airways charges for nonstop service between Philadelphia and Boston and fares for taking connecting flights between the cities.

Searching online for flights to Boston for a meeting he and colleagues need to attend in January, Crain found that US Airways' basic round-trip coach ticket for nonstop service is $1,115, even if purchased two months in advance.

The travelers found that if they take two Continental Airlines commuter flights to Boston, connecting through Newark, the fare would be $230.

Almost as cheap would be driving or taking the train to Newark, where for $270 they could take US Airways flights to and from Boston that make connections through - you guessed it - Philadelphia.

Think about the irony: The travelers on US Airways could wind up on the Philadelphia-Boston leg of the trip sitting next someone who got on in Philadelphia and paid five times as much.

"It's fascinating to me that you end up on the same flights either way," Crain said.

This kind of pricing isn't the exclusive province of US Airways, nor is it unusual in the recent history of the airline industry. The highest fares are typically on lightly traveled routes connecting smaller cities to one of the major airlines' hubs, or between two hubs that don't have low-fare competition.

For example, a weekday round-trip on Continental between its hubs in Newark and Houston can cost more than $1,350. On the same days, the price of a Philadelphia-Houston round-trip could be just over $200, largely because Southwest Airlines also flies the route.

In the federal statistical report for the second quarter (the most recent numbers available), the highest average fares were in three smaller cities: Huntsville, Ala.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Savannah, Ga. Finishing in fourth and fifth places were the hubs of United Airlines at Washington Dulles Airport and Continental's at Houston.

Something else to remember is that relatively few customers pay the unrestricted coach fares displayed on airline and online travel agency Web sites. Demand between Boston and Philadelphia obviously remains strong, and many business travelers work for companies with the travel volume that enables them to negotiate for lower fares.

I wrote about the Philadelphia-Boston disparity in my Aug. 10 column, noting that Southwest Airlines was starting service at Boston Logan Airport and wondering whether it planned to offer Philadelphia-Boston flights. At that time, the nonstop round-trip fare on US Airways was only $1,050.

I have pestered Southwest officials at every opportunity since, trying to pin them down on when relief might be in sight. Each time, they say something to the effect of, "Give us time to get through the worst of the recession and we will consider it." So I have no news to report on that front.

Taking a broader view of the wacky world of airline pricing, it's only fair to look at life from the carriers' perspective.

Over the industry's long history, in this country and worldwide, airlines have lost more money than they have made. Their fortunes follow economic cycles in more pronounced ways than many businesses', with revenues soaring in good times as they jack up fares and losses so great during recessions that they more than wipe out the profits. That's precisely what has happened the last 12 months.

Airlines are labor-, capital-, and technology-intensive, requiring lots of highly trained people and money just to keep planes flying safely, whether there are enough passengers to make a profit or not.

The airlines also have large numbers of customers, politicians, bureaucrats, labor unions, consumer advocates, and reporters watching their every move and hectoring them in multiple ways. It seems that airlines are called on the carpet by members of Congress for something they have or haven't done more often than other industries are.

Every big glitch in an airline's operations - such as pilots so absorbed in their laptops they forget to take the airport exit from 35,000 feet - is reported for days after by the media. The glitches are followed by extra scrutiny by government regulators on top of what the carriers receive routinely.

Finally, airlines have to listen to critics who gripe relentlessly about things such as fees for services once included in the ticket price and little matters such as the high cost of nonstop flights between Philadelphia and Boston.

But no one forces airlines to be in business. They're accustomed to such complaints, just as they accept the natural result of what customers do when they believe fares are unfair.

In other words, rather than flying to Boston, Dan Crain and his colleagues will probably fly in January to Providence, R.I., or Manchester, N.H. - where competition between Southwest and US Airways keeps round-trip fares below $200.

Contact Tom Belden at 215-854-2454 or tbelden@phillynews.com.