A rundown of costs related to flying in an airplane

I often wonder why certain airfares are so cheap while others are so expensive while covering an almost equal distance. Without much knowledge of the airline industry, I always figured it was related to taxes and fees (much like a cellphone bill might have an exuberant amount of fees that nobody can ever explain -- but that's another issue for another time). It turns out, I guess I'm not entirely wrong. There are a lot of fees mandated by individual countries for flights going in and out of country airspace, but that doesn't quite paint the complete picture of why flying can sometimes feel expensive (even though statistically as you'll see in the video, it has gotten cheaper).

So what makes flying expensive? Operational costs, sure, but also a ton of things beyond the airlines' control like fuel costs, per-flight passenger capacity, and you know, paying all the people who you don't see inside the aircraft some sort of living wage.

Added bonus video below: WINGLETS!