> For comparison, just look at how crazy expensive airfares are in the States for similar flights.

I assume you're referring to the cost of a comparable domestic flight within the US.

How can you credit the success of the EU for your $80 flight ticket and then compare this to the US? It obviously goes without saying that the US is a far more effective and integrated union than the EU (the EU is not even a fiscal union). I suspect the difference in flight costs has more to do with population sizes than "political unions".