Essay on The Airline Oligopoly

Many utilities are monopolies by having the entire market share in certain areas. With deregulation of these utilities, the market becomes open to competition for market share to begin. In terms of regulation of monopoly, the government attempts to prevent operations that are against the public interest, call anti-competitive practices. Likewise, oligopoly is a market condition where there are minimal distributors that have a major influence on prices and other market factors. This causes market failure, especially if evidence of collusive behavior by dominant businesses is found.

When consumers decide to purchase a product or service a car, a new refrigerator, or prescription drugs, the goal of the antitrust laws is to make sure their choices are not restricted unreasonably. Consumer choice is a powerful incentive for the sellers of any products to keep their prices low and their quality high. When the antitrust laws are vigorously enforced, businesses must respond to what consumers want. A business that ignores consumer wishes, by refusing either to keep prices competitive or to offer

The United States Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was a dramatic turning point in America. It was the first systematic dismantling of a comprehensive system of government control since the Supreme Court declared the National Recovery Act unconstitutional in 1935. It was also part of a broader movement that, with varying degrees of thoroughness, transformed such industries as trucking, railroads, buses, cable television, stock exchange brokerage, oil and gas, telecommunications, financial markets, and even local electric and gas utilities. Since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the airline industry has experienced significant growth,

The Risk of Entry by Potential Competitors – Since the deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 over 1,300 new airlines have opened for business. However, most now are bankrupt or merged with the other carriers to stay workable. The established giants were Delta (merged with Northwest), American Airlines (merged with U.S. Airways), United Airlines (merged with Continental), and now Alaska Airlines (merged with Virgin America). Now the Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are posing a massive threat which includes Southwest Airlines (merged with Air Tran), and JetBlue.

The domestic US airline industry has been intensely competitive since it was deregulated in 1978. In a regulated environment, most of the cost increases were passed along to consumers under a fixed rate-of-return based pricing scheme. This allowed labor unions to acquire a lot of power and workers at the major incumbent carriers were overpaid. After deregulation, the incumbent carriers felt the most pain, and the floodgates had opened for newer more nimble carriers with lower cost structures to compete head-on with the established airlines. There were several bankruptcies followed by a wave of consolidation with the fittest carriers surviving and the rest being

American Airlines (American) made four fundamental changes to its rates. First, it moved to a four-tier rate structure; American offered first-class rates and three tiers of coach: full-fare, 21-day advance purchase and 7-day advance purchase. Overall, it expected to reduce coach fares by 38% and first-class fares by 20% to 50%. Though full fare coach prices dropped by about 38%, advance-purchase fares dropped by 6% when compared to the advance purchase tickets already being offered. Through this fare structure, American also eliminated deep discount tickets. Second, American eliminated the negotiated discount contracts of many large

At the onset of the airline industry in the United States, major network airlines were the sole providers of air travel. This multifaceted industry was a difficult industry to break into as a consequence of “sophisticated customer segmentation, hub-and spoke models and costly information systems for reservations, fare wars and intense competition” (Thompson 2008). Shrinkage in airline ticket prices augmented the demand for airline travel. Many markets were simply deserted or over-looked by major network airlines; this is a region a fresh “second tier of service providers” could enter into. This endeavor proved to provide a consumer savings of billions per year. Thus in June of 1971, after a tumultuous battle with other Texas-based

Oligopoly Behavior in the Airline Industry. Case Analysis This case illustrates the pricing behavior of firms that are oligopoly whose market is characterized by the relative few participating firms offering differentiated or standardized products or services. Such firms in an oligopoly have market power derived from barriers of entry that wards off potential participants. As seen in the case, it is clear that because there are a small number of US Airlines firms competing with each other, their behavior is mutually interdependent – thus, the strategies and decisions by one airline management affect managements of the other airlines whose subsequent decisions then affect the first airline. In the airline industry, such oligopolistic

The results of airline deregulation speak for themselves. Since the government got out of the airline business, not only has there been a drop in prices and an increase in routes, there has also been a remarkable increase in airline service and safety. Airline deregulation should be seen as the crowning jewel of a federal de-regulatory emphasis. Prices are down: Airline

The airline industry has seen drastic changes since September 11, 2001. The government ordered a complete shutdown for three days of not only all commercial aircraft but such carriers as domestic flights and emergency aircraft. For days after September 11th, all aircraft stayed on the ground. Even military aircraft had to receive special clearance to fly. In a ripple effect, the entire economy of the United States and the world was put on hold. The New York Stock Exchange shut its doors because of the attacks on the towers of the World Trade Center.

3,4- The Airline industry and the market The airline industry is large, specially in the United States, mainly due to the “ Deregulation” of the industry. In 1938, the Civil Aeronautics Board was created to control the growth of the air transportation industry. This board had the authority to control entry, exit, prices and methods of competition. In the late 1970 this structure was found inefficient and in 1978 deregulation took place. Due to the deregulation of the industry competition intensified, prices dropped, and the number of people travelling increased. Many new companies emerged and regional airlines saw deregulation as an opportunity to expand. Due to the rise in competition, by 1986 mergers started to take place and in 1987 64.8% of the market was controlled by the four largest airlines. The demand for air travel is determined mainly by price, studies revealed that half of the leisure travellers and on quarter of business travellers did not have a preference for a particular airline, which means that prices determined the

Airlines use a formula of combining their yield and inventory costs to determine ticket prices. While it is imperative to focus on the idea of being profitable, the focus is to maximize the cost of the flight revenue. One huge factor that encourages an increase in the cost of tickets relates to a customer ordering a ticket close to the departing date, define this as a risk factor because they need to make up for all unsold seats. A high percentage of the revenue is dedicated to overhead costs such as fuel and labor. When a ticket price is higher with one airline than the other, the customer interprets this as being an excessive cost. The demand is greatly affected by the external market

1. Deregulation of the US airline industry in 1978 ushered in competition in the hitherto protected industry. Several low-cost, low-fare operators entered the competitive market after the deregulation.

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 changed the operation of civil aviation forever and for better. The aviation when controlled by the federal government, its potential development was restricted and the air travel was very expensive and could only be afforded by few. The act brought several changes which affected the airlines as well as people.

In our country this is basically a monopoly market. But new competitors are arising. There are two types of competitors such as-