Proposed new safety rules for the Beach City airport would lengthen

Passage Analysis

• Proposed new safety rules for the Beach City airport would lengthen considerably the minimum time between take-offs from the airport.

o New safety rules for the Beach city airport are put forward.
o These rules will increase the minimum time gap to be maintained between consecutive take-offs of flights from that airport.

• In consequence, the airport would be able to accommodate 10 percent fewer flights than currently use the airport daily.

o As a result of the new rules, the number of flights that can use the airport each day will be 10% lesser than the current count.

• The city’s operating budget depends heavily on taxes generated by tourist spending, and most of the tourists come by plane.

o One of the main sources of income of the city is the taxation on tourist spending.
o Majority of the tourists arrive by flights.

• Therefore, the proposed new safety rules, if adopted, will reduce the revenue available for the operating budget.

o Due to these reasons, the author concludes that if the new suggested safety rules are implemented, the income to the city’s operating budget will decrease.

Conclusion: The proposed new safety rules, if adopted, will reduce the revenue available for the city’s operating budget.

Question Stem Analysis
We are required to identify the assumption that has to be made if the conclusion should hold true.

Pre-thinking

Falsification Question
In what scenario is it possible that the proposed new safety rules, if adopted, will not reduce the revenue available for the city’s operating budget?
Given that

• Proposed new safety rules for the Beach City airport would lengthen considerably the minimum time between take-offs from the airport.
• The airport would be able to accommodate 10 percent fewer flights than currently use the airport daily.
• The city’s operating budget depends heavily on taxes generated by tourist spending, and most of the tourists come by plane.

Thought Process
The author concludes that, the proposed new safety rules that leads to a limit in the number of flights that can use the airport per day, which is ten percent lower than the current traffic in the airport, will lead to a decrease in the income to the city’s budget, as the revenue to the operating budget is heavily dependent on taxing the expenditure by tourists in the city, majority of whom arriveS through the airport. The crux of the falsification of the argument lies on the various ways that can neutralize the impact of the decrease in number of flights at the airport per day. This can be about the number of tourists per flight, the amount spent per tourist and the taxation of spending.

Falsification Condition#1
What if the number of tourists who arrive per flight increase significantly such that the total number of tourists who arrive daily is not decreased? In that case the premises remain intact, but the conclusion cannot hold.
Assumption#1
The number of tourists who arrive per flight will not increase significantly such that the total number of tourists who arrive daily is not decreased.

Falsification Condition #2
What if the amount of expenditure per tourist at Beach City increases significantly after the new rules are imposed? Then there will be no reason for the operating budget to be affected.
Assumption#2
The amount of expenditure per tourist at Beach City will not increase significantly after the new rules are imposed.

Falsification Condition #3
What if the taxes levied on tourist spending could be further increased or new such taxes be introduced without affecting the tourist inflow? Here also the premises remain intact, but the conclusion breaks down.
Assumption#3
It is not possible to increase the taxes levied on tourist spending or introduce new such taxes without affecting the tourist inflow.

Answer Choice Analysis

(A) There are no periods of the day during which the interval between flights taking off from the airport is significantly greater than the currently allowed.
INCORRECT
We are told that the maximum number of flights that can be accommodated daily if the new rules are adopted will go lower than the current number by 10 percent. Redistribution of take-off times cannot be a solution here. Therefore, this assumption is not relevant for this question.

(B) Few, if any, of the tourists who use the Beach City airport do so when their main destination is a neighboring community and not Beach City itself.
INCORRECT
This option says that nearly every tourist who use Beach City airport have the city as their main destination. What we are concerned about is the revenue to the city’s operating budget from tourist spending. In the case of this assumption, the relative share of tourists who use the airport to visit beach city is what is being talked about. Therefore, it is an incorrect choice.

(C) If the proposed safety rules are adopted, the reduction in tourist numbers will not result mainly from a reduction in the number of tourists who spend relatively little in Beach City.
INCORRECT
If the total number of tourists(T) who arrive through the airport are classified to those who spend a lot at beach city(S) and those who spend relatively little at beach city(L), this assumption states that the decrease in T is mainly due to the decrease in S and not much due to the decrease in L. This assumption cannot lead to the conclusion if the number of people in L group is very large compared to the number of people in S group. Hence this is an incorrect choice.

(D) Increasing the minimum time between take-offs is the only way to achieve necessary safety improvements without a large expenditure by the city government on airport enhancements.
INCORRECT
The reason for proposing such a rule is not a matter of concern for us as our conclusion is regarding the impact on the operating budget of the city if the rule is implemented. Hence, this is an incorrect choice.

(E) The response to the adoption of the new safety rules would not include an increase in the number of passengers per flight.
CORRECT
This assumption is in line with our pre-thought assumption 1 and hence the correct answer.