Ben KriegsmanBlock BThe airline industry has an incredibly intricate marketplace governed by consumer needs and corporate greed. The airline industry uses an oligopoly-style market structure, and airlines often use certain price discrimination to gain maximum profit from their services. Externalities also weigh on the airline sector. Competition between airlines is incredibly fierce and only those who are hungry for business and hard cash will survive within the walls of terminals and aircraft lounges. Since the jet age, airlines have entered and existed in the airline industry. Some have been in business since the beginning. For example, United Airlines was founded almost twenty-five years before the jet age took off and, thanks to the incredible amount of money it had, as one of the first airlines to precede the jet age, it was able to purchase new jets and established itself as one of the giants of aviation in the late 1950s. But the introduction of new technologies has opened up questions regarding the externalities and production of these new technologies. (“Assessing the External Environment – ​​Responding to a Changing External Business Environment – ​​United Airlines | United Airlines Case Studies and Information | The Times 100,” n.d., p. 1) The onset of the jet age offered a There is an intense opportunity for new companies to open or expand, producing new products from jet engines to structural parts, from radar technology to reclining seats. According to research conducted by the Air Transportation Action Group, “it has been estimated that the airline industry supports a total of 29 million jobs” (Hanlon, 2007, p. 1). This statistic demonstrates how much the world depends on the airline industry, for jobs and travel, as well as on other competitors by sharing scarce resources, including brand assets and market capacity, improve service quality and, therefore, improve profitability ” (2000, p. 137). Airline alliances are formed to enhance airline value by “(a) achieving or preserving greater economies of scope than they could individually; (b) improve the "continuity" of their multiple offering; and (c) increase their effectiveness by combining frequent flyer programs and airport clubs” (Kahn, 2004, p. 64). These alliances, in turn, expand each member's routes beyond the normal range and enable uninterrupted service to customers (Oum et al., 2000, p. 138). None of this would have been possible without the free market, however, and after 1978, the airline industry began to see a boom in revenues and intercompany cooperation after airline deregulation was passed (Smith & Cox, 2008, p.. 1).