Airlines market is much closer to a monopolistic competition than a cartel/oligopoly structure.
Not that I would trust a random journo to know the economics, but this is the NYT. This is why journalism is dying - instead of checking up the science and basic definitions behind the article (by shooting a quick email to Krugman, perhaps), it's just an article that gets views by piling on the hate bandwagon against United and dragging the rest of the airlines with it.
The headline is wrong.
If you want a typical cartel/oligopolistic market - look at the telecoms.
Not that I would trust a random journo to know the economics, but this is the NYT. This is why journalism is dying - instead of checking up the science and basic definitions behind the article (by shooting a quick email to Krugman, perhaps), it's just an article that gets views by piling on the hate bandwagon against United and dragging the rest of the airlines with it.
The headline is wrong.
If you want a typical cartel/oligopolistic market - look at the telecoms.