Explain which barriers to entry an new airline might face when entering the international flight market

A new airline faces enormous startup costs, due to the required purchase or renting of planes, as well as the cost of fuel and landing slots at its chosen destination airports. The air travel industry has strict regulations to protect passenger safety and wellbeing, which can be extremely costly to meet too. Regulations are an example of a legal barrier to entry. Brand loyalty also stands in the way of a new airline's successful entry into the air travel market. Firms such as British Airways and Virgin use loyalty programs to protect their share of the market, offering 'points' for each flight a customer takes, with points leading to future flight discounts. However, in the modern era, where similar flights offered by different airlines can be compared online within seconds, brand loyalty is significantly less important in the air travel market than it once was.A new airline also has to contend with existing airlines' economies of scale advantages. Existing airlines with large fleets can use their purchasing economies of scale to potentially make per unit fuel costs cheaper by negotiating bulk buying deals with suppliers. Existing large airlines will also benefit from managerial economies of scale (a form of division of labour), as specialised managers can be employed across the firm in more specific roles than a new airline could achieve. This is likely to give the existing airline a productivity advantage.