Hatfield Airport, the closest airport to the city of Hatfield, has rec

Question

Hatfield Airport, the closest airport to the city of Hatfield, has recently opened a new terminal for AirJet International, a popular low-cost airline. Since the terminal has opened, Hatfield Airport has welcomed significantly more customers, to the extent that airline staff members have complained that they can no longer serve their customers efficiently. If AirJet International were to move their major terminal to the more remote Chesterfield Airport, the staff argues, the customers of both AirJet and the airlines based at Hatfield Airport would be happier.

Which of the following is an assumption that supports drawing the conclusion above from the reasons given for that conclusion?

A. The increased traffic at the airport is due to the popularity of AirJet's flights.
B. Other airlines based at Hatfield Airport are not as widely used as AirJet.
C. Customers are unhappy with the slowness of service at Hatfield Airport.
D. Chesterfield Airport has been losing customers since the AirJet terminal at Hatfield opened.
E. AirJet customers would not mind traveling further from Hatfield, since AirJet's low fares save them money.

Hatfield Airport is the closest airport to the major city of Dudley. Since AirJet International opened operations at the airport last year, the entire airport has suffered from tremendous delays, and airport staff have complained to their managers that they can no longer serve the passengers efficiently. The same corporate group runs both Hatfield and the new Chesterfield airports. If AirJet International were to move most of its operations to the new terminal at Chesterfield Airport, the staff argues, the customers of both AirJet and the airlines based at Hatfield Airport would be served much more efficiently.

a. The increased traffic at the airport is due to the popularity of AirJet's flights.

b. The managers of the airpoint staff typically listen to their staff carefully and take their complaints seriously.

c. In surveys, most customers have cited the slowness of service at Hatfield Airport in the past year as their #1 complaint.

d. The corporate group that runs both airports would realize tremendous profits if the new terminal at Chesterfield were used to capacity.

e. Chesterfield Airport is closer to the Dudley than to any other major city.

DmitryFarber · Accepted Answer

Missyy  Careful there--on an assumption question, any assumption can be the answer. So if we had two assumptions, we'd have two answers, and of course that's not possible. Our job is not to find the most important or central assumption.

The problem with E is that we don't need the customers to  not mind  or to  save money . We just need them to be happier than they are now. So if they mind traveling the extra distance and they don't save any money, but they would be happier in the new (perhaps less-crowded) terminal at Chesterfield than they are at Hatfield, the argument still works. We don't strictly need E. However, if we didn't have A, that would mean AirJet isn't the cause of the problem and therefore it might do no good to relocate that terminal.

KarishmaB · Answer

H Airport (close to city) recently opened a new terminal for AirJet International, a popular low-cost airline.

Since the terminal has opened, Hatfield Airport has welcomed significantly more customers,

Customer service has suffered.

Conclusion: If AirJet moved their major terminal to the further away C Airport, the customers of both AirJet and the airlines based at H Airport would be happier.

We need an assumption which will support the conclusion - something that must be true for the conclusion to hold.

In suggesting to move the Airjet terminal, we are assuming that the extra traffic is because of Airjet and once it moves, the customer service will improve.

1. The increased traffic at the airport is due to the popularity of AirJet's flights.

Correct. We need this to be true. If Airjet is not the cause of increased traffic (and it is just a co-incidence that since Airjet terminal was opened, traffic has increased) then moving Airjet won't resolve current problems and people will not be happier.

2. Other airlines based at Hatfield Airport are not as widely used as AirJet.

Irrelevant. We know that before Airjet, things were better than after Airjet. Relative popularity of airlines is irrelevant.

3. Customers are unhappy with the slowness of service at Hatfield Airport.

We don't know why customers are unhappy. We know that the service is not efficient. Are they unable to provide services or is there delay in providing services, we don't know. We don't need "slowness" to be the reason for unhappiness.

4. Chesterfield Airport has been losing customers since the AirJet terminal at Hatfield opened.

Irrelevant. We don't need to assume that C airport is losing customers.

5. AirJet customers would not mind traveling further from Hatfield, since AirJet's low fares save them money.

We don't need to assume that they would not mind travelling the extra bit. They may mind but the great service at C airport might more than make up for it and they may be happier. So this is not an assumption we need to make for our conclusion to be true.

Answer (A)

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation 
Because this question asks about the argument’s conclusion, quickly re-state it: customer satisfaction will go up if AirJet customers move to another airport, because the opening of their terminal has coincided with a rise in crowds. To find the assumption making this argument work, we need to find a statement that correctly links this rise in crowds to AirJet in particular. (A) does this, spelling out the reason for the recent crowds.

The argument is not concerned with other air carriers at the airport (B); some of them may be more popular than AirJet, but there weren’t overwhelming crowds before AirJet’s terminal opened, so this is not relevant to our argument.

Customers may indeed be unhappy with the slowness of service (C). Note, though, that it is the staff who have complained, not the customers (necessarily!) This is also not a necessary assumption to link the ideas that AirJet should move and that AirJet has overcrowded this airport.

The focus in this question is on Hatfield, not Chesterfield (D). While moving AirJet to Chesterfield might solve Chesterfield’s problem, it is not a necessary condition or assumption that needs to be made for the argument about AirJet and its attendant crowds to work.

The mindset or opinions of AirJet’s customers are not relevant to this argument (E), because if AirJet were to move, the AirJet customers would no longer crowd Hatfield--whether or not AirJet maintained those customers.

Answer = (A)

maheshaero20 · Answer

If I negate option 1 and 3. ==>

1. Increased Traffic is not due to popularity of Air Jet
3. Customers are happy with slow services.

Then argument breaks apart. How to deal these situations.

gmatexam439 · Answer

Hello,

What is he source of the question, I doubt that it's GMAT worthy.

The conclusion of the argument is that since the airport people are unable to serve the customers efficiently; therefore, the terminal be moved to Chesterfield.
But, Option "C" targets the slowness instead of efficiency (there is a difference between being slow and being inefficient).

Option "A" however says that the increased traffic is due to AirJet's popularity, which might not be the case. For example, consider the following statements 1. I drink milk daily; 2. I got ill; it doesn't mean that because of the milk i got ill, there could have been many more reasons. So going on the basis of this analogy it really doesn't mean that the customers increased due to the popularity of the AirJet.

Experts could you please throw some light on this.

Regards

CantDropThisTime · Answer

I hope the answer is "C" as per the question "Which of the following is an  assumption  that supports the  conclusion  above from the reasons given for that conclusion"

Notice the word "conclusion", so we have to find the assumption that supports the conclusion not the passage as a whole.

Dont worry about the word "Slowness" in the option "C"; this is a direct result of "inefficiency".

gmatexam439 · Answer

I did take a different stand on this question earlier, as it can be seen by my comments above, but now after solving this question after that day I too selected "A". Here is my reasoning for the answer.

Hatfield Airport, the closest airport to the city of Hatfield, has recently opened a new terminal for AirJet International, a popular low-cost airline. Since the terminal has opened, Hatfield Airport has welcomed significantly more customers, to the extent that airline staff members have complained that they can no longer serve their customers efficiently. If AirJet International were to move their major terminal to the more remote Chesterfield Airport, the staff argues, the customers of both AirJet and the airlines based at Hatfield Airport would be happier.

Which of the following is an assumption that supports drawing the conclusion above from the reasons given for that conclusion?

1. The increased traffic at the airport is due to the popularity of AirJet's flights. - As per the argument, since the opening of the terminal more customers have been welcomed at the airport. Thus this statement can be an assumption. Lets keep it as a contender. 
2. Other airlines based at Hatfield Airport are not as widely used as AirJet. - This is irrelevant 
3. Customers are unhappy with the slowness of service at Hatfield Airport. - The last statement says that both the customers and staff will be " HAPPIER ". Nowhere its stated that customers are unhappy right now. Customers could be just ok or even be happy right now with the management. Its been given that only staff thinks they are unable to handle the crowd. Additionally the last statement " the customers of both AirJet and the airlines based at Hatfield Airport would be happier " is NOT the conclusion of the argument. The conclusion of the argument is " airline staff members have complained that they can no longer serve their customers efficiently ". Therefore customer can be happy or unhappy. Its irrelevant. Nowhere the argument is talking about the customer. 
4. Chesterfield Airport has been losing customers since the AirJet terminal at Hatfield opened. - Irrelevant. If this were to be true, the statement would weaken the argument. 
5. AirJet customers would not mind traveling further from Hatfield, since AirJet's low fares save them money. - Again, irrelevant. As explained in the point "C", this argument is not about the customers.

What i think about this argument as a whole is that, we need to understand the real meaning behind the author's writing.

Hope it helps.

chesstitans · Answer

I was laughing after I realize that 50% of other people also make wrong choices, the option E, in this question. It is understandable because people must have read the question too quickly. 
E is actually out of scope because the argument says the Air Jet moves to remote areas while the option E talks about a claim that the customers of Air Jet will agree to travel further. Certainly, E has alraedy distorted the meaning of the argument.

Missyy · Answer

I think option E is not wrong, its just not the main contradiction in the argument. The argument basically talks about since Air Jet moved to the airport the traffic increased significantly, so some staff suggests move to another airport to ease the traffic and make better services to its customer.

Adi93 · Answer

Hi  DmitryFarber

Can you please help me in identifying the Conclusion for this Argument.

Is it the last statement or is it this statement "airline staff members have complained that they can no longer serve their customers efficiently".

Thanks

DmitryFarber · Answer

Adi93 , Skywalker18 is right. The conclusion is the last sentence. You can tell because it describes an opinion (specifically, a prediction about what will happen in the future if a change is made), while the previous statements describe facts that potentially support that opinion.

user8275 · Answer

i dont understand. isn't A repeating the information given in the stem? how is that an assumption?

DmitryFarber · Answer

user8275

This is a classic case of correlation vs. causation The premise said that two things were correlated: the terminal opened and the number of customers went up. What we're missing is causation, which is what A addresses. The key words are "is due to." Perhaps the number of customers happened to go up at the same time, for some other reason than the opening of the terminal. If the terminal is not the cause, then moving it may not make any difference. That's what makes A a necessary assumption.

shvm_sin7 · Answer

Hi, What if the reason of delay was due to AirJet, it might hav been that its airplanes were essing up and were left stagnant at the airport or were facing some tecnical snags, right before the takeoffs? That could be the reason of delays. How can we assume that the only reason of delays is increase in poplularity of airjet?

DmitryFarber · Answer

shvm_sin7

Interesting idea, but this still wouldn't be an issue if the increase had nothing to do with the fact that lots of people are using that airline. Whether the airline is having trouble or not, answer A is still needed to link the (cited) appearance of a new, popular airline at the airport with the (cited) increase in delays at that same airport.

NPProb · Answer

Another poor-quality question.
Choice A: The increased traffic at the airport is due to the popularity of AirJet's flights.
But in the stem of the question:
 
So, apparently A is not the   additional assumption   because it's the evidence provided in the argument, we see a lot of questions in which people (and some "experts" (LMAO)) point out clearly you shouldn't choose something which has already been stated in the question stem as an assumption.
The answer is apparently C, because the conclusion of the question is:
 
but the words in the question stem only says:
 
Actually, if you pay attention, you'll find that all the descriptions in the question stem just focus on the perspective of the   airline staff members instead of customers.  
So, you have to assume C:
 
in order to reach the conclusion in the question stem.

DmitryFarber · Answer

A word of advice--the moment you decide that everyone else is a fool is usually the moment you start to miss things.

In this case, you're missing that A is providing a  causal  link that is not provided in the argument. It's a bit tricky because the premise in question uses the word "since." This can, of course, mean "because." But the tenses used here indicate that the premise is just telling us about time. Since the time when the terminal was added, we have seen an increase in customers. It isn't telling us about causation. Was the increase  caused  by the appearance of the new terminal, or by something else? If, for instance, there have just been more customers who can afford to fly, or if some other airport closed around the same time, then the increase may not have much to do with this particular terminal, and moving it may not make much of a difference. That's what A is addressing.

Meanwhile, I see why you'd make a case for C, but it's too specific to be necessary. We've been told that customers can't be served efficiently, and the conclusion is that customers would be happier if the terminal were moved. So the author is assuming that if customers could be served more efficiently, they'd be happier. (Not much of a stretch, but still an assumption.) We don't need to know that they are currently UNhappy--after all, I'm happy now, but I'd be happier if I didn't have to wait so long when I took a flight. We also don't need to know that slowness (as opposed to other forms of inefficiency such as mishandling of luggage, difficulties with boarding, gate changes, etc.) is the specific reason for any unhappiness they feel.

NPProb · Answer

I have figured out the pattern of this kind question, it was my mistake for this one, there's nothing wrong with this question.

Hatfield Airport, the closest airport to the city of Hatfield, has rec

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Hatfield Airport, the closest airport to the city of Hatfield, has rec

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards