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GMAT Club World Cup 2026 (Day 8): Starting at the beginning of 2015

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A---Does not weaken.
B---It strengthens to a matter of fact.
C---Reducing must have increased efficiency and increased
D---this does not weaken at all and irrelevant
E--- This might be an alternative reason to why profits declined due to promotional fares. Correct Ans.

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A) this option says that other airlines on same route profitted caretes a doubt on the given passage ,somewhat weakens
B) comfort
C) Carrying capacity double
D) fuel efficient actually strenthens may be
E) This option looks to weaken more

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(A) All of the other airlines that operate regional jets on the affected routes saw higher profits for 2015 than for any of the preceding five years. This somewhat strengthens, eliminating other causes.

(B) On passenger surveys conducted throughout 2015, passengers rated the regional jets significantly higher for both comfort and reliability than the turboprop planes that they replaced. This strengthens showing better service provided may have increased the cost.

(C) SunDog has been able to reduce the total number of flights it operates per day on its routes over 300 miles, because its regional jets carry twice as many passengers as did the turboprop planes that they replaced. this may show that operating costs have decreased, but if cost of each flight increased then does it offset the reduction in flights?

(D) SunDog’s regional jets use less fuel per person aboard to fly a given distance than did the turboprop planes that they replaced. What about other costs related to maintenance??

(E) Approximately 35 percent of the fares that SunDog sold in 2015 were promotional fares that it sold to passengers on its new regional jets at a price equal to the airline’s own per passenger cost. Correct. If significant tickets were sold at no profit, total profit will reduce due to reduction in revenue

Ans E

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Jets' higher operating costs were responsible for decline in profits:
Find alternate reasons.
A. Other airlines' profits or loss cannot be used to generalize here. Not correct.
B. Not correct. Passenger's satisfaction might not necessarily relate to decline in profits.
C. There is no reference point from what to 300 miles it was reduced. And it only reduces operating costs nothing about profit here.
D. Lower operating costs with lower fuel means it can increase profits not decline so not correct.
Which leaves us with E.
E. Massive promotional fares cost which means there is money going in promotions and actual expenses. Justifies the conclusion why this alternative can reduce the profits.

Ans is E.

Bunuel

Starting at the beginning of 2015, SunDog Airlines replaced its turboprop planes with regional jets for all routes longer than 300 miles. SunDog sold between 10 and 30 percent more fares in 2015 than in any of the previous five years, yet it recorded substantially lower profits for each quarter of 2015 than for the same quarter in any of the previous five years. SunDog’s chief executive concluded that the jets' higher operating costs were responsible for the decline in profits.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the chief executive’s conclusion?

(A) All of the other airlines that operate regional jets on the affected routes saw higher profits for 2015 than for any of the preceding five years.

(B) On passenger surveys conducted throughout 2015, passengers rated the regional jets significantly higher for both comfort and reliability than the turboprop planes that they replaced.

(C) SunDog has been able to reduce the total number of flights it operates per day on its routes over 300 miles, because its regional jets carry twice as many passengers as did the turboprop planes that they replaced.

(D) SunDog’s regional jets use less fuel per person aboard to fly a given distance than did the turboprop planes that they replaced.

(E) Approximately 35 percent of the fares that SunDog sold in 2015 were promotional fares that it sold to passengers on its new regional jets at a price equal to the airline’s own per passenger cost.

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Weaken Question
A - Not strong enough, the operating costs might be higher because they have hired specialised staff or any other factor. Simply a comparison does not justify this.
B - Qualitative aspect/review does not justify why profit are low.
C - Does not reveal why profits are lower, no supporting data or reasoning is not present in data stem.
D - Contradicts why profits should be higher and not lower, but profits being lower is a premise/Fact, not the conclusion.
E - CORRECT. Exactly explains why even though revenue/no. of bookings are higher but profits are lower, bec 35% of revenue is making no profits at all, and given that only 10-30% fares are higher, the rest of the profits are unable to make up for the difference on a YoY basis.

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A) NO -> rather strengthens
B) NO -> irrelevant
C) NO -> rather mentions one kind of operational fuel saving instead, but doesn't prove why cost high
D) NO -> strengthens
E) YES -> it's not operational but marketing cost responsible for profit decline

Bunuel

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Bunuel

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A - possibly strenghtens argument by implying that Sundog profits were less due to higher op. costs. EXCLUDE
B - does not give any indication of operating expenses being high or low. EXCLUDE
C - Reducing flights would have led to saving in operating expenses, which strengthens the argument. EXCLUDE
D - while Fuel consumption being less would imply OP. costs would reduce, fuel only serves as part of Op. cost. Other related costs could still be high. EXCLUDE
E - gives alternate explanation for less profits as 35% seats were sold at zero profit. SELECT

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Bunuel

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option a - anything about different companies is not mentioned in passage. costs different for companies
option b - ratings are not related to costs. option c - this shows it carries twice the passengers but cost might still be more, not the best in weakening the conclusion
option d - same as c
option e - gives direct other reason which weakens the given conclusion. thus correct ans is E

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This question mentions that SunDog Airlines replaced their planes with new planes. This lead to increase in sales but also led to decrease in profits. As per the opinion of CEO - the reason for decrease in profit is higher operating costs.
We require an argument that weakens the CEO's claims

Option A - This does not weaken the claim as it talks about other airlines and not about SunDog Airlines and hence not the answer
Option B - This does not weaken the claim - it only mentions why sales increased. This is also not correct
Option C - This does not mention the reason for high operating costs. Hence not correct
Option D - This mentions that lower fuel was used - this does not mention that whether the reduced use of fuel leads to lower costs and hence this is also wrong option
Option E - This mentions that for 35% of sales - the sales price was equal to the cost and hence there would be no margin on such sales. This mentions a reason for drop in profit which is not due to high operating cost and hence weakens the argument. This option is correct

Correct answer is Option E

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A.Other airlines using regional jets had higher profits. This doesnt explain the lower profits for Sundog

B. Passengers prefer the jets. This doesnt explain lower profits

C. Fewer flights might actually improve profit margin and weaken CEOs arguement

D. Jets use less fuel per passenger. This might also improve profits and weaken CEO arguement

E. BEST ANSWER. About 35% of fares were promotional fares sold at per passenger cost. So they made no money on 35% of tickets. This would decrease profits but not be related to higher operating costs. The company may have improvements in profitability after the promotion is finished. The above weaken the CEOs arguemt.

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Bunuel

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A. Some other airlines did well with regional jets and made more money. This makes the claim a little weaker. It is possible that these airlines have different expenses and charge different prices for their tickets.

B. People liked flying on the jets. However this does not tell us why the airline is not making much money as it used to.

C. The airline did not need to fly many planes. This could have saved them some money. It does not mean that the airline was not hurt by other expenses that are higher.

D. The jets also use fuel, which means they cost less to run in one way. However regional jets could still be very expensive in ways.

E. This is correct. If thirty five percent of the tickets were sold for the price that it costs SunDog to fly the plane then the airline is not making any money from those tickets. This gives us a reason to think that the drop, in profits is because of this and it makes what the CEO is saying less believable.

I believe that Option E is correct.

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Bunuel

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A. INCORRECT > Some other airlines that use jet planes are making money. This shows that jet planes are not always a thing. Different airlines have situations when it comes to jet planes.

B. INCORRECT > People like to fly on jets.. This does not really explain why some airlines are not making as much money.

C. INCORRECT > Because jet planes can carry people there are fewer flights. This can save some money. It does not really explain why profits are down.

D. INCORRECT > Jet planes use fuel for each person on the plane. This makes it harder to say that fuel costs are too high because fuel is part of the costs of running an airline.

E. CORRECT > If 35 percent of tickets are sold for the price that it costs to fly someone then those tickets are not making any money, for the airline. Jet planes are still involved in this situation. The fact that jet planes are being used does not change the fact that these tickets are not profitable.

Option E looks correct.

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The CEO concludes that profits fell because the new regional jets had higher operating costs, to weaken this we could find an alternative explanation for lower profits.

A - irrelevant, as talks about other airlines, we dont know anything about them, maybe they charged more or had lower costs due to speciail pricing. reject
B - so what? passenger satisafction doesnt adress the cause of lower profits- reject
C -indicates lower operating costs which would strengthen the argument - reject
D- says used less fuel per passenger, indicates lower oeprating costs, but fuel is only one part, what about cost of leasing the jet, maintenance etc. - reject
E - this means that the comp doesn't earn profit at all on more than one third of those fares. keep

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In the weakening CR, we have to look for a gap between a conclusion and evidence through which we can find the answer. The gap is "What else," meaning what other thing requiring to be changed to weaken the argument.

E is the answer because it shows another reason apart from the jet operation cost. It tells the reason for declining profit due to promotional fares, which is the cost per passenger to increase sales as a promotion. Therefore, the conclusion falls apart, and it weakens the CEO's conclusion.

(A) Out-of-scope because there is no relationship between what other airlines do and what the company does. Eliminate.
(B) There is no discussion about whether the profit increases or not due to the reliability. Eliminate.
(C) It is actually supporting and weakening the conclusion at the same time. Why? Reducing the total number of flights will reduce the profit, which can increase operational costs. However, boarding twice as many passengers can increase the profit! Eliminate.
(D) If the cost is less, how come there is a decline in profits? Not true. Not weakening too. Eliminate.

Answer: E

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15 Jul 2026, 18:31

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Answer: E

Situation: Airline has sold a higher quantity of tickets, but their profits have not increased in line with that, in fact, their profits have declined. The proposed explanation is that this is due to higher costs, but we are looking for something that challenges this explanation.

Think for a moment about the two equations we use all the time for Quant questions: Profit = Revenue - Cost, and Revenue = Price * Quantity.

For Profit to decrease when quantity increases, there are two possibilities:
1. Cost increases
2. Price decreases

For this question, let's scan for answer choices which are related to price decreasing.

Using this framework, we can quickly see that E is the correct answer.

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The airline replaced the turboprop planes with regional jets for all routes>300 miles.
It sold 10-30% more tickets than in last 5 years but still had less profits than any of those years. CEO concluded that the jet's operating costs are responsible for the decline in profit to weaken this statement
we can look at simple math
Profit= Sale Price- Operating Price
Profit decrease could be because of two reasons either Operating cost increased or Sale Price decrease
To weaken CEO's conclusion we have to prove Sale price has fallen.
Sale Price= Price per ticket*no of tickets
As the number of tickets sold has increased so Price per ticket must have fallen
So Option E is the best answer

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In 2015, SunDog airlines replaced the turboprop with regional jets for distances of more than 300 miles.
The company reported increase in the sales (10 to 30% more tickets sold) but it also reported lower profits for each of the 4 quarters in 2015 compared to the same quarters in the previous 5 years.
The chief executive blames the high operating cost as the cause for the reduced profits.

We need to weaken the conclusion drawn by the chief executive

A - All of the other airlines that operate regional jets reported higher profits in 2015 compared to previous years - there could be multiple factors for the same (the other airlines may have reduced other operating costs, achieved higher revenue, etc) and this does not directly challenge the conclusion drawn by the chief executive. - Incorrect

B - Passengers feedback on Jets vs Turboprop makes no difference to the conclusion drawn by the Chief Executive. We are concerned with the reduced profits and not how customers perceived it. - Irrelevant

C - If it is able to reduce the total number of flights, the operating cost should have been lower thereby increasing the profit if not maintaining it. We do not get a reason as to why the company reported lower profits than previous five years in each of the quarter - Incorrect.

D - Similar to C, we do get a reason as to why the company reported lower profits - Incorrect

E - This gives us an alternative. If 35% of the overall sales were promotional fares that it sold to regional jets passengers, makes sense why the operating profits would come down. So even though, the company sold 10-30% more fares, the revenue per fare would have come down, leading to lower revenues and ultimately lower profits. - Correct.

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15 Jul 2026, 20:38

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E provides an alternate cause - promotional fares at the cost price so no profit on those & Thus E is the answer

Bunuel

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E

The CEO blames the jets operating costs, however option E provides a cause on the revenue instead. A third of the 2015 fares went out at exactly what they cost the airline, so those sales added Zero to the profit while still counting toward the 10 to 30 percent fare growth. This is why the volume rose and profit fell.

C and D say costs dropped but cutting fuel per passenger or flying fewer legs only addresses one line item, neither explain where the profits went.

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15 Jul 2026, 22:18

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con=lower profit bcz jets have higher operating cost, we need to find another cause
35% ticket were sold no profit
so higher operating cost need not be the cause

A-talking about other airliines
B- out of scope
C-fewer flight doesn;t explain lower profit
D- weakner
E-here we got alt cause