The development of Internet technology made it a lot easier for airlines to conduct business. The need of ticket agents decreased, which at the same time decreased costs. Also, with the use of the internet customer can compare the prices of competitors, which is to advantage of the low cost airlines. The industry goes along with upturns and downturns of the economy. The airline industry is also highly dependable on extreme events like the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Such events create fear in customers and therefore lower demand. Another important factor is fuel prices, which keep going up. Different competitors have different strategies on how to survive. Some airlines started charging for things that used to be free, for example beverages, checked-in luggage, meals, seat assignments and carry-on bags. Other carriers decided to fly on higher altitudes where oxygen quality is lower which results in less fuel being used (Shifrin).
The economy crash in 2008 was not very pleasant for the airline industry. Many people could not afford to fly and chose cheaper, ground transportation instead. Once the economy started picking up, the regional airline industry noted higher revenues. It is the smaller, regional jets that fly more frequently than big airplanes like for example Boing 787 or Airbus A350. Manufacturers Bombardier (Canada), Embraer (Brazil), and Mitsubishi (Japan) have many orders for small single-aisle jets. While Boing and Airbus work on coming up with bigger and bigger airplanes, smaller manufactures take the opportunity to fulfill the need of 100 to 149 seat jets (Wagner).
Regional airlines are going through a lot of changes right now. There have been many mergers and acquisitions in the industry. Increasing efficiency has become the main goal of the regionals. Having maintenance bases in places of heavy air traffic is