It would require an economic study to reveal whether airline passengers were being exploited, not Fist's personal views based on anti-market bile. I would have been more impressed with his attack on airlines if had shown how a cartel can survive in a free market, including one in the airline industry. This brief article has scarcely sketched the real nature of competition and market processes. This is because its true purpose was to demonstrate that Fist's attacks on free markets and the theory of competition are based on ignorance and, to be blunt, ideological bigotry. In economics there is no such thing as 'real costs'.
All costs are opportunity costs and are therefore subjective.
3 Anti-market ideologue resorts to abuse contains Fist's response followed by mine.