General Economic Characteristics of Oligopoly and Particular Characteristics of Airlines Student’s Name Institution’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Name General Economic Characteristics of Oligopoly This is a market structure that is characterized by a small number of large companies dominating the market. These large companies either sale identical products or service or different services. At the same time, they create barriers stopping other competing companies from entering the market. Oligopoly dominates major industries in the world today ranging from cars to computers, aircrafts to pharmaceutical products and many more. There are general characteristics that oligopoly have that makes it distinct from other markets (Hirschey, 2009). One of the characteristics of oligopoly is that a few companies dominate a specific industry. These firms are generally larger than the market and thus creating a considerable market control. The extent of the market control also depends on the number and size of the market. These large firms at the same time merge with an aim of forming a cartel. In addition, this considerably increases their market share resulting to increased economies of scale which reduces competition (Hirschey, 2009). Another general characteristic of oligopoly is that the few dominant companies produce identical products while other produce differentiated products. Most oligopoly industries producing identical products tend to produce raw materials use…