Ben KriegsmanBlock BThe airline industry has an incredibly complex market governed by consumer needs and corporate greed. The airline industry uses an oligopolistic type market structure and airlines often use some price discrimination to get the most out of their services. Externalities also weigh on the air transport sector. Competition between airlines is incredibly fierce and only those hungry for business and hard cash will survive within the terminal walls and landing halls. Since the Jet Age, airlines have entered and existed in the airline industry. Some have been in business since the very beginning. For example, United Airlines was founded almost twenty-five years before the start of the jet age and, thanks to the incredible amount of money it had from being one of the first airlines before the jet age, it was able to purchase new jets and established itself as one of the giants of air transport in the late 1950s. But the introduction of new technologies opened the way to problems related externalities and the production of these new technologies. ("Assessing the External Environment - Responding to a Changing External Business Environment - United Airlines | United Airlines Case Studies and Insights | The Times 100", nd, p. 1) The start of the Jet Age offered a intense opportunity for new companies to open or expand, producing new products ranging from jet engines to structural parts, from radar technology to reclining seats. According to a study by the Air Transportation Action Group, “the airline industry is estimated to support a total of 29 million jobs” (Hanlon, 2007, p. 1). This statistic proves how dependent the world is on the airline industry, for employment and travel, as well as other competitors by sharing scarce resources, including brand assets and market capabilities, improving the quality of service and, therefore, improve profitability” (2000, p. 137). Airline alliances form to improve the combined value of the airlines by “(a) achieving or preserving greater economies of scope than they could achieve individually; (b) improve the “fluidity” of their multiple offerings; and (c) increase their effectiveness by combining loyalty programs and airport clubs” (Kahn, 2004, p. 64). These alliances, in turn, extend each member's routes beyond the normal scope and enable seamless service for customers (Oum et al., 2000, p. 138). However, none of this would be possible without a free market, and after 1978 the airline industry began to experience a revenue boom and business-to-business cooperation following the passage of airline deregulation (Smith & Cox , 2008, pp... 1).