STICKER SHOCK: Going somewhere?

If you’ve ever driven to Providence or Manchester to catch a flight, you already know that flying out of Logan Airport can be very expensive. Since the beginning of 2008, however, the price of flights originating out of Boston have risen to levels twice as high as the national average.

As Nicole Wong of the Boston Globe reports, ticket prices everywhere are rising, but Boston has been hit particularly hard because so many flights out of Logan serve a radius of about 1,000 miles around Boston.

Shorter flights tend to cost less, but raising the sticker prices can lead to big jumps in the percentage increase of the cost of the airfare. Additionally, Logan is not serviced by the major discount airline Southwest.

Well-known for their inexpensive short distance flights, the absence of Southwest at Logan could be influencing the increase in fares. Rick Seany, chief executive of farecompare.com, said to the Boston Globe "If Southwest flew to Logan, you'd be in the bottom part of the pack for fare increases."

The good news is some discount providers such as JetBlue and AirTran do fly out of Logan, and they offer many long distance options. "If you didn't have JetBlue flying coast to coast, [the increases] would be a lot higher."

While flying out of Boston is often the most convenient option, doing a quick search of the surrounding airports could be cost effective.