There is an open secret in the airline industry keeping your fares high. If you look closely, you can see it right behind the airline counter. Join me on this flight, and you will understand why airline signs at the gates you have seen across the country are not just innocent branding. They are actually key to how the four biggest airlines keep you paying more for a steadily deteriorating flying experience.
We will dive into the heart of the industry to expose how the largest airlines monopolize airport infrastructure, shutting out competition even if the gates are empty. But we will also take you to Missoula, Montana, where a brand-new terminal shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. We can have really nice airports and lower prices.
The Era of Regulation vs. The Modern Monopoly
To understand why we are all paying too much to fly, you have to understand how radically the industry has changed over the past decades. For 40 years, from 1938 to 1978, the airlines in the United States were regulated by the federal government, much in the same way that other utilities are regulated.
Fares actually made sense then. They were based on cost. What a concept! We haven’t seen that in 46 years. For more than 50 years, aviation was a very stable industry. But in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act, giving airlines control over routes and fares.
What we have seen since then is constant disarray. We have seen dozens and dozens of airlines in the last 40 years that have either shut down, filed for bankruptcy, reorganized, or we have seen dozens and dozens of mergers and acquisitions.
The Concentration of Power
What we have now in 2024 is the most concentrated and consolidated industry that we have ever seen. This is not hyperbolic. We have 12 scheduled passenger airlines in the United States right now. That may seem like a lot, but for context, in the mid-1980s, we had more than 75. We have not had so few airlines in the United States since before World War I, since the infancy of the industry in 1914.
There are more flavors of Coca-Cola than there are airlines to fly from. The “Big Four” airlines in the United States—American, Delta, Southwest, and United—control 80% of the market.
How Market Power Affects Your Wallet
That outsized market power directly affects the price you pay for a ticket. It is really one of the most underreported airline stories of the 21st century. The big guys stopped competing with each other head-to-head on price around the turn of the century, around 2001 or 2002.
Today, if your options on a given route are only Delta, United, and American, you are guaranteed to pay more. The only way that changes is if a low-cost carrier enters that market. Even if you never fly Spirit Airlines, Frontier, Allegiant, or Breeze, you benefit from their presence if you are flying on a route in which they fly.
When an ultra-low-cost carrier enters a market, fares on average go down about 21%. In some cases, even more. It is just impossible to overstate just how critical the role of the low-cost carriers is. Whether you are planning a domestic trip or looking into The Clymb Adventures, the presence of these carriers dictates the price you pay.
The Infrastructure Stranglehold
There is just one problem: low-cost carriers are often being shut out of the mere opportunity to compete. You can see it for yourself in many airports across the country. Next time you fly, take a look at the airline signage at your gate and ask yourself: is it permanent?
If you are at a major airport in Europe, you still have dominant carriers, of course. Air France is going to be the biggest airline in Paris. But what you will see is that the airports are designed in such a way that there is common usage. When you are told that your flight is at gate 17 and it is an Air France flight, there is no Air France logo bolted into the wall in metal. There is no signage that is constantly telling you “Air France, Air France, Air France.” You will see an electronic boarding announcement.
Common usage allows airlines to share gates, bag rooms, computer systems, and other infrastructure required to run a flight. When that Air France flight takes off, the screen and gate can turn over and be used by a different airline.
The American Model
We don’t tend to use that model here in the United States. The big carriers fight against common usage. We allow the largest carriers to brand airports as their own. But it is a deeper problem than that. It is not just that Delta has its signs bolted into the walls in Atlanta and many other places; it is that they use that power and that size and scope of their operation to keep out others.
A recent analysis of gate use at major airports shows exactly how the largest airlines use their power to dominate the system. In 2019, the major airlines had a set routine for how much time it took them to turn aircraft at a certain gate. Turning an aircraft means getting a plane in and out again.
The Post-COVID Gate Hoarding
In simple terms, if a major carrier before COVID was operating seven flights a day out of a gate at a given airport, and after COVID they might have been operating four flights a day, a sensible person would say, “Well, there is an opening there for three more flights, so let’s have a lower cost carrier come in.”
Shockingly, in 2023, they went back and compared the numbers to 2019, and they saw that all throughout COVID, the big carriers continued to sit on those gates and other airport assets. They stretched out the times. Not all of these gates are empty, but a lot of these flights don’t take off for hours.
There is really, really strong evidence that the big airlines use the facilities that they bully airport authorities into having access to; they use them to the detriment of competition and low-cost carriers. If you are a major airline, you do not want to see Spirit, Frontier, or Allegiant because you know the result: they will come in and offer lower fares.
The Missoula Solution: A Glimpse of the Future
It doesn’t have to be this way. Missoula, Montana, is doing things differently, and that could be a sign of the future. While airports are essentially always under construction, this airport in Missoula, Montana, is undergoing a massive three-part expansion, in large part thanks to federal funding.
Phase one of Missoula’s terminal expansion was partly funded by the American Rescue Plan, which the Biden-Harris administration passed in 2021. It is very clean, it is very new, it is very shiny, but it also has character.
Crucial details about the airport’s renovation reveal they are actually creating competition and lowering fares. One unique thing that they did is they tried to leave space in between all of their agencies. If an airline needs to grow or expand, there are open ticket counters next to them. And then again, there is always room for a new entrant as well.
Implementing the Common Use System
They use what is called a common-use system. That allows airlines to be able to use any gate at the airport. You won’t see a Delta or United sign bolted to the wall here in Missoula.
The airport also set up its baggage service in a unique way. This is their baggage makeup carousel. Usually, airlines have their own staff doing this—United baggage people, Delta baggage people—and they are separate. However, the airport actually operates its own ground handling department as well. The airport provides service for American, Allegiant, Frontier, and Sun Country. Having that as an option makes it easier to bring in newer airlines.
The Results of Competition
Just this year, several low-cost airlines added new flights to Missoula. Sun Country started this summer. Frontier returned to them. When you get those two carriers, then other airlines try to keep their market share. So, United more than doubled their service into Missoula this summer.
If you go out and buy a ticket, anecdotally, you can see prices are way, way down. The community appreciates that the cost of airfare has gone down due to competition this summer. If you are considering travel, perhaps even looking at something complex like The Brutal Truth About Alaska Cruises, understanding how these hubs operate can save you money on the flight portion of your journey.
Comparative Airport Strategies
The difference between the traditional model used by the “Big Four” and the competitive model seen in Missoula highlights why fares differ so drastically.
| Feature | The “Big Four” Monopoly Model | The Missoula Common-Use Model |
| Gate Ownership | Airlines control specific gates permanently. | Airlines share gates based on need. |
| Signage | Permanent logos bolted into walls (e.g., Delta in Atlanta). | Electronic signage that changes per flight. |
| Efficiency | Gates sit empty to block competitors. | Gates turn over quickly to maximize flights. |
| Baggage Handling | Each airline maintains its own separate staff. | Airport provides shared ground handling services. |
| Competition | Low-cost carriers are shut out of infrastructure. | New entrants like Frontier and Sun Country are welcomed. |
| Impact on Fares | Guaranteed to pay more due to lack of choices. | Fares drop significantly (avg. 21% lower) with competition. |
Federal Funding and Legislative Action
The next two phases of Missoula’s airport expansion, which are under construction now, are funded in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the Biden-Harris administration also passed in 2021. The last grant received through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law really allowed them to fund this last chunk of the project.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law amounts to the single largest upgrade of America’s transportation infrastructure since the 1950s, with $25 billion allocated to airports. The law is helping break the airline stranglehold on airport infrastructure. When selecting projects for grant money, the Department of Transportation has been prioritizing ones that increase competition, like Missoula’s expansion.
Fighting Junk Fees
It is an approach that is in line with a slew of new protections for passengers that the administration has enacted, such as banning hidden fees. Healthy competition requires that, as a consumer, you comparison shop, which means knowing the real price of a trip before and not after you buy.
In the last two years or so, we have seen more positive developments than we have seen in decades. The administration has stepped up and enacted a flurry of new passenger protections and new rules. Of course, the airline industry hates it.
The Lobbying Battle
Airlines for America, a lobbying group that only represents the largest airlines, has been lobbying against and publicly fighting these new passenger protections. The group and the carriers they represent have spent $20 million since early 2023 lobbying against rules requiring airlines to disclose hidden junk fees.
They also attempted to kill the administration’s new rule requiring airlines to issue automatic refunds for cancelled flights. The big guys are out for their own best interest. And unfortunately, those interests are often anti-competitive, anti-consumer, and against the best interests of the country itself. That is why some are saying it is time to look at new and sensible ways of regulating the industry.
Whether you are navigating a Nassau Bahamas Travel Advisory or simply flying home for the holidays, consumer protections are vital.
The Airport Gate Competition Act
Long term, with an industry this powerful, it will take even bolder action to make the airlines prioritize passengers over profits and increase competition to bring down prices. The Airport Gate Competition Act, introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, is one proposed piece of legislation to do that.
In very simple terms, it calls for at least 25% of gates and facilities to be common usage. What it also does is it will limit the largest carrier from having more than 50% domination at a given airport. It may be one of the most significant things that can be done to crack this sort of stranglehold that the big guys have on airports. If we can get more access, that in turn will help bring down fares and provide more choices for consumers—that word that we are always hearing about, but that we don’t often see in the industry: competition.