Economics and Airlines

One of the, like d'oh, obvious bits about the states is the need to fly everywhere. SeaTac airport is delightful, not least for the plethora of Alaskan Airways planes. These have the most hilarious tailplanes ever - it's supposed to be a grinning Inuit in traditional dress. Only they got the world's worst artist to paint it so it looks like Liam Gallagher in full wearing a school parka mode.

It's strange though that given the culture of really high levels of service, and with widespread competition in US airlines (we can get access to at least 20 domestic carriers at SeaTac, on a recent trip I had a choice of 5 different airlines), that the experience of flying is so grotty compared with the UK. The service is definitely pre-Branson, and the costs are not cheap, despite the reputation. A return flight to New York cost about the same as it would from London. In short it's like paying BA prices to fly Ryan Air. Fly on a grotty 737, pay for your food, pay for alcohol, pay for the inflight movie (and this on flights as long as a transatlantic crossing). It's worse than al-Italia 10 years ago!

Can anyone point me to some economic literature that explains this apparently unintuitive result?