Modern examples of oligopolies include the airline industry

An oligopoly is a market structure where a few large businesses dominate the entire market

When a few large companies dominate a market, changes in pricing for goods and services affect the entire market. Airlines are a common example of an oligopoly. Because the barrier to entry in the aviation industry is high, only a few airline companies offer the majority of the industry's services. While there is some competition, pricing across the board is largely intertwined and based on other companies' prices.

Find out how airline mergers created some of today's largest airlines

Four airlines dominate the US commercial airline industry: Delta, United, Southwest, and American. Many of these large companies secured their top spots in the industry via a series of mergers and acquisitions starting in the 1970s, when American acquired Trans Caribbean Airlines.

An overview of monopolies, when one company controls an entire market

In the business world, a monopoly exists when one company controls the entire market. Regulators take issue with monopolies because they have been found to limit consumer choices, raise prices, and hurt competition.

See a visual of the largest airlines in the US by market share

As of November 2024, Delta Airlines controlled roughly 17.8% of US airline market share, while American Airlines controlled about 17.5%, and Southwest controlled about 17.3%. Spirit Airlines, which would go on to shutter operations in 2026, controlled less than 5% of US airline industry market share at the time.

Explore a list of well-known monopolies

Many American monopolies popped up during the rapid industrial growth of the Gilded Age. Industries like steel, tobacco, railroads, and telecommunication have all been monopolized at some point in history.

Monopolies are considered the most extreme form of imperfect competition

True monopolistic companies face no competition, meaning there aren't any near substitutes for the goods or services the company provides. Often, no competition exists because the monopoly is either approved by the government or the barrier to entry is costly.

A 'bilateral monopoly' occurs when there's one supplier and one buyer in a market

Bilateral monopolies are often used to conceptualize labor markets in small towns. Using this concept, large employers have a monopoly over the labor market, while workers have a monopsony as the only available laborers.

Airbus is a rare European industrial success story that overtook a rival American firm

After World War II, the US dominated aviation, particularly Boeing. To compete, Europe's major industrial nations pooled resources to form Airbus, a customer-centric airplane manufacturer. Its A320 family of planes became the most popular in airliner history, leading to profitability in the 1990s. Amid Boeing's major hurdles in recent years, Airbus remains the industry leader.

Learn about the bodies that govern the US commercial airline industry, such as the FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates US air travel, monitoring both safety and advancement. But despite deregulation in the 1970s, the industry has other governing bodies, too, including the US Department of Transportation and the TSA.

The seven major US freight rail companies

The US railroad industry is dominated by seven long-running freight conglomerates. Get the basics on each of these companies with this brief overview.

Commercial air travel's early days: Flights were short, cold, depressurized, and generally comfortable

After World War II, airlines competed for their high-end passengers by offering cocktails, meals, and plush seats, cultivating the image of the elite "Jet Set." By the 1960s, air transport was completely changing global trade and offering big profits to companies able to ship via plane.

Nvidia controls more than four-fifths of the GPU market—but isn't considered a monopoly

Semiconductor company Nvidia has a commanding market share when it comes to graphics processing units. Its competitors include Advanced Micro Devices and Intel, which together account for less than a fifth of the GPU market.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

The number of publicly traded companies has decreased in recent years

In 1996, more than 7,300 companies traded publicly on US stock markets, but that number has recently dropped to 4,300. Economists point to two reasons: First, going public requires full disclosure of operations, exposing it to scrutiny from investors, competitors, and analysts. Second, the IPO process is expensive and time-consuming.

The world is shifting from unipolarity toward a multipolar order

The post-Cold War world was briefly unipolar after 1991, with the US standing alone as a global superpower following decades of US-Soviet bipolarity. Analysts increasingly describe today's order as multipolar, with China, Russia, the US, and regional powers all competing for influence.

Understanding why the US can't use its own crude oil and depends on global markets

Before advancements in fracking technology made lighter shale oil readily available, US refineries had been built and optimized for decades to process heavier oil from other countries with high profitability. Despite being able to refine lighter oil, US oil companies can operate with better margins by exporting it to other nations whose refineries are optimized for it and importing heavier oil, for which the US has the infrastructure.

Federal systems are a minority among the United Nations' 193 members

Of the United Nations' 193 member countries, roughly two dozen use a federal system, dividing power constitutionally between national and subnational governments. This group includes the United States, India, Canada, Germany, and more. The video walks through examples of how these states operate.

Tech giants like SpaceX and Meta are increasingly behaving like sovereign powers

Companies now make unilateral decisions once reserved for nation-states, such as controlling satellite internet access in active war zones and influencing global information flows. Lawmakers and the international order are struggling to keep up with technological developments, let alone regulate them.

The number of people collecting money from gig work tripled between 2017 and 2021

That includes people driving for Lyft or delivering food through GrubHub. Those people might be changing the face of the US economy at large, too. Gig work provides a cushion between jobs outside of government unemployment assistance, for example.

Opera faces many economic problems today

Opera is a notably expensive art form, and therefore currently struggling to survive economically. Pandemic losses, reduced government funding, and dwindling ticket sales all pose a threat to its continuation. According to a recent survey, about half of the UK wouldn't feel impacted if all opera houses were shut down.

45% of Americans have no access to public transit

Most US transit was built on a monocentric design, funneling riders into a downtown center. But today's most common commute is from suburb to suburb, meaning the system is built for a work pattern that no longer exists.

Understanding how non-profit entities manage electric grids to ensure supply-demand balance

Independent System Operators in smaller areas and Regional Transmission Organizations that operate across multiple states run wholesale electricity markets. Electricity suppliers can submit competitive bids to meet estimated demand in day-ahead markets while keeping consumer costs low. ISOs and RCOs also inform markets of deviations in these estimates so that suppliers can adjust how much power they generate, which is then bought and sold in real time.

Explaining the rise in adult sports leagues

Community sports leagues shifted from publicly supported entities to privatized ones in the 1990s, as tech advances streamlined registration processes. Millennial interest drove significant growth in social sports leagues for adults, growing much faster than other kinds of sports. A few industry leaders have benefited from this shift.

Coca-Cola operates under an asset-light, divided structure

The "company" manages the brand itself, as well as its secret formula and syrup production. The capital-intensive "system" of independent bottlers, on the other hand, handles manufacturing and distribution.

American Express uses co-branded cards to provide brand-specific perks

Co-branded credit cards are partnerships between a card issuer and another company. Unlike regular credit cards that offer many different kinds of benefits at different companies, co-branded cards tend to only offer perks with the partner company. For example, American Express has a co-branded card with Delta airlines that allows users to earn points specifically towards the Delta rewards program.

Dystopian literature is focused on oppressive societies

The subgenre can come in many forms, but its shared traits are the way it reflects the anxieties and satirizes the utopian thinking of its writers’ societies. One of the earliest examples is Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels."

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Learn how monoclonal antibodies, which mimic the body's antibodies, can fight diseases like Ebola.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.