Why are roundtrip international flights so much more expensive when you are only staying a short time (2-3 days) in the other country?

Question

Title. Why would it matter to the airline how long you’re waiting between the two flights on a roundtrip, even when you’re scheduling both flights well in advance?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Logisitics of balancing out how many people they are taking to and from the country. If you fly out on a Monday and come back on the following Monday you are ticking off a seat on a return trip. Otherwise you’re creating a potentially empty seat on two flights for them.