Apathoid,
Don't go away angry! I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass about seat mile costs
You missed my point, which is when you fly for $250-$300 SEA-ANC, what makes you think any of those carriers is making money on that flight? You assume that $250 is reasonable, when it's very likely a fare subsidized by other routes, and connecting passengers. Continental, NW, all have their "loss leader" routes that feed passengers into their "low-competition" routes where they make enough profit to pay for the loss leaders.
Would you pay an extra $100-$200 on your ANC-SEA flights so they can be profitable if you could get a Juneau flight at cost? Well if Alaska priced that way they'd probably be bankrupt in a couple months, after they lost all their ANC-SEA feeder traffic.
The key question is, if Alaska is making so much money on it's Juneau flights, why isn't anyone competing there? Maybe costs are higher, maybe loads are low, etc. The reality is Alaska is serving your state and providing Alaskan consumers options to the ferry, the competitors aren't. Yet instead of railing at the missing competitors who refuse to offer service to you, you attack the one company that does.
FYI, your little rant about outsiders is really provincial. We're not discussing a problem that is unique to Alaska, in every state there are routes where a single competitor has pricing power, but there is little to stop anyone from entering those markets. For example, if I want to fly PDX-Klamath Falls on a business trip, it will cost $302! And it's less than half the distance of your Juneau trip. Am I mad that it's so expensive? Nope, I'm glad I have the option to avoid 10 hours of mind numbing driving. Somehow I doubt Horizon is making a killing flying a turboprop with 3 crew for only 10 passengers to a remote airport. And so what if they are? it's up to a competitor to come in and take that business.
So, instead of whining, why don't you get off your fat behind, and start an airline to Juneau, and start making tons of money by offering a better choice to these "gouged" consumers! This is america, so stop making excuses, you've identified your opportunity, go take it! Imagine how much poorer we all would be if Herb Kelleher had your attitude..