the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the travel bans instated in many countries, many airline companies were operating at low profit or at a loss. However, due of high exit barriers, many airline companies have chosen to continue to operate and compete in airline industry despite the pandemics continuing negative effects on the airline industry. Real Life Case: Delta Airlines wants to exit its business but has a significant amount of debt owed to investors. They used the investor funds to purchase airplanes. Airplanes can only be used by the airline industry, classifying them as specific assets. Depending on the age of the planes, the assets might have a low scrap value. As a result, Delta might have a difficult time finding a buyer for the planes, leaving them unable to payoff the debt and exit the industry. The most feasible solution would be to find a competitor in the industry that had the capital to buy the fleet or opt to request financial assistance from the government. "Banks are often considered necessary for lending and promoting economic growth in a region. If there are not enough banks or competition in an area, the government might block the sale of a bank to another party." In this instance, despite the bank wanting to leave the market, governmental regulations place a barrier to exit. Technology firms, such as Apple have "low barriers to entry and high barriers to exit, exacting steep switching costs on users who dare to defect." Leaving the Apple platform of technology would cause a customer to lose all of their downloaded content, including music, movies, applications, games, and more critical date such as virtual panic buttons or schedules. The investment of the consumers time and energy is lost if they choose to make the switch from Apple devices to android devices. Market structure Perfect competition - free entry and exit Monopolistic competition - free entry and exit These two types of markets are the only types of markets that face high entry/exit barriers, as other markets do not allow for firms to enter and exit at will. See also Barriers to entry Market power Switching barriers (or switching costs) References Johnson G, Scholes K and Whittington R, (2006), "Exploring Corporate Strategy", Prentice Hall International () Monopoly (economics) Imperfect competition