Justme, surely if you are flying around with a bunch of seats bought but never used would be cheaper for the airlines? First, if they are a "no show" you can sell them to last minute sales or fill up the seats with standbys, or alternatively you can fly the empty seat, reducing the overall weight (and therefore cost of the flight) and keep the money!!
The truth is the reason you do it, is because of your ridiculous, byzantine charging system, which depends on the monopoly positions of the "fortress hubs". Low costs don't do this, as the economics are not the same. The reason the hub airlines do this is to protect their monopoly positions at the hubs.
That is the bottom line... and sadly only regulation will address this.
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