From June through August 1987, Premiere Airlines had the best on-time service of 10 United States airlines. From January through...

GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions

Source: Official Guide

Critical Reasoning

Paradox

MEDIUM

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Notes

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From June through August 1987, Premiere Airlines had the best on-time service of 10 United States airlines. From January through March 1988, Premiere Airlines had the worst on-time service of the 10 airlines. The on-time performance ranking of the other nine airlines relative to each other remained unchanged.

Which of the following, if true, would most contribute to an explanation of the facts above?

Although Premiere Airlines only revoked its policy of routinely holding flights for late passengers in the fall of 1987, the other nine airlines never had that policy.

Premiere Airlines reduced its business by 10 percent when it raised its rates in the fall of 1987 to compensate for rising gasoline costs.

Premiere Airlines bought five new planes in the fall of 1987 that proved to have fewer mechanical problems than the ones they replaced.

Premiere Airlines serves New England, which has heavy winter snowfalls, whereas the other airlines do most of their business in warmer regions of the country.

Although all 10 airlines strive to keep their flights on schedule, overcrowded airports increased flight delays for all 10 airlines in January 1988 as compared with June 1987.

Solution

Passage Analysis:

Text from Passage	Analysis
From June through August 1987, Premiere Airlines had the best on-time service of 10 United States airlines.	What it says: Premiere Airlines ranked #1 for on-time performance during summer 1987 out of 10 airlines What it does: Sets up the starting point showing Premiere at the top of performance rankings What it is: Factual baseline information Visualization: Summer 1987 Rankings: 1. Premiere Airlines ⭐ 2. Airline B 3. Airline C... 10. Airline J
From January through March 1988, Premiere Airlines had the worst on-time service of the 10 airlines.	What it says: Premiere Airlines dropped to dead last (#10) for on-time performance in early 1988 What it does: Shows a dramatic reversal from the previous situation - complete flip from best to worst What it is: Contrasting factual information Visualization: Early 1988 Rankings: 1. Airline B 2. Airline C... 9. Airline I 10. Premiere Airlines ⭐
The on-time performance ranking of the other nine airlines relative to each other remained unchanged.	What it says: Only Premiere moved in the rankings - all other 9 airlines stayed in the same order relative to each other What it does: Clarifies that this wasn't a general industry shuffle - only Premiere experienced this dramatic change What it is: Additional constraining information Visualization: If Summer 1987: Airlines B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J were ranked 2-10, then Early 1988: Same airlines moved up to ranks 1-9 in identical order, with Premiere falling to 10th

Argument Flow:

The passage presents a puzzle by showing us three key facts: Premiere went from #1 to #10 in performance rankings, this change happened over about 6 months, and no other airline changed position relative to each other. These facts together create a situation that needs explaining.

Main Conclusion:

There is no explicit conclusion in this passage - it's setting up facts that need explanation. The passage presents a puzzle about Premiere Airlines' dramatic performance decline.

Logical Structure:

This isn't a traditional argument with premises leading to a conclusion. Instead, it's a fact pattern that presents an anomaly requiring explanation. The three facts work together to show that something specific happened to Premiere Airlines (not industry-wide changes) that caused their unique dramatic decline.

Prethinking:

Question type:

Paradox - We need to find an explanation that resolves the apparent contradiction of Premiere Airlines going from best to worst while all other airlines maintained their relative rankings

Precision of Claims

The claims are very specific: Premiere went from #1 to #10 position, the time periods are exact (summer 1987 vs early 1988), and crucially, the other 9 airlines kept their exact same relative order to each other

Strategy

For paradox questions, we need to find a cause or explanation that makes both seemingly contradictory facts make perfect sense. The explanation should account for why ONLY Premiere's performance changed so dramatically while everyone else stayed in the same relative positions. We're looking for something specific to Premiere that changed between these time periods.

Answer Choices Explained

Although Premiere Airlines only revoked its policy of routinely holding flights for late passengers in the fall of 1987, the other nine airlines never had that policy.

This choice suggests Premiere revoked its policy of holding flights for late passengers in fall 1987, while other airlines never had this policy. However, this doesn't explain the dramatic performance shift. If anything, stopping the practice of holding flights should improve on-time performance, not make it worse. This contradicts what we need to explain and doesn't account for why the change happened specifically between summer 1987 and early 1988.

Premiere Airlines reduced its business by 10 percent when it raised its rates in the fall of 1987 to compensate for rising gasoline costs.

This tells us Premiere reduced business by 10% after raising rates due to gasoline costs. While this shows Premiere made operational changes, a reduction in business volume would typically improve on-time performance (fewer flights = easier to manage schedules), not make it dramatically worse. This doesn't explain why performance declined so severely.

Premiere Airlines bought five new planes in the fall of 1987 that proved to have fewer mechanical problems than the ones they replaced.

This states Premiere bought five new planes in fall 1987 with fewer mechanical problems. Again, this should improve performance, not worsen it. Fewer mechanical problems would lead to better on-time service, which contradicts the facts we're trying to explain. This choice goes in the wrong direction entirely.

Premiere Airlines serves New England, which has heavy winter snowfalls, whereas the other airlines do most of their business in warmer regions of the country.

This perfectly explains the paradox! Premiere serves New England (heavy winter snowfalls) while other airlines operate in warmer regions. During summer 1987 (June-August), weather wasn't a differentiating factor, so Premiere could be #1. But during winter 1988 (January-March), New England snowfalls would severely impact Premiere's operations while airlines in warmer regions wouldn't face these challenges. This explains both why Premiere dropped to last place AND why other airlines maintained their relative rankings - they weren't affected by the seasonal weather change.

Although all 10 airlines strive to keep their flights on schedule, overcrowded airports increased flight delays for all 10 airlines in January 1988 as compared with June 1987.

This mentions that overcrowded airports increased delays for all 10 airlines in January 1988 compared to June 1987. If this affected all airlines equally, it wouldn't explain why only Premiere's ranking changed so dramatically while others maintained their relative positions. This describes an industry-wide problem, not something specific to Premiere.

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