notrandom wrote:
A county airport, designed to serve the needs of private aircraft owners, planned to cover its operating expenses in part by charging user fees to private aircraft using the airport. The airport was unable to pay its operating expenses because the revenue from user fees was lower that expected.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following must also be true?
(A) Most of the country's citizens live a convenient distance from one or another airport now offering commercial airline services.
(B) Private aircraft owners were unwilling to pay the user fees charged at the airport.
(C) The airport's construction was financed exclusively by private funds.
(D) The airport's operating expenses were greater than the revenues raised from sources other than the airport user fees for private planes.
(E) The number of owners of private aircraft who use the county's airport facilities will not change appreciably in the future.
Operating expense was to be covered in two ways - user fees + other revenues
User fees was supposed to cover the expense partly.
Revenue from user fees was lower than expected (so they expected to get say $1 million in user fees over the year but they got only $500k).
So the airport was unable to pay its operating expense.
What does this mean? It means that the 'other revenue' was less than (operating expense - 500k). It couldn't make up the difference.
This means that certainly other revenue was lower than the operating expense.
Hence option (D) is certainly true.
(B) Private aircraft owners were unwilling to pay the user fees charged at the airport.
Option (B) may not be true. Private aircraft owners may be willing to pay the user fees but they may not have used the airport enough to generate that quantum of fees. We don't know how private aircraft owners feel about the user fees.
Answer (D)