Solution

Passage Analysis

• Sparrow Airlines is planning to reduce its costs by cleaning its planes' engines once a month,

o Sparrow Airlines has the intention to reduce its expenditure.
o The way they plan to do so is by cleaning the planes’ engines once every month.

• rather than the industry standard of every six months.

o Industry standards demand cleaning the planes’ engines only once every six months.

• With cleaner engines, Sparrow can postpone engine overhauls, which take planes out of service for up to 18 months.

o Cleaner engines can help Sparrow Airlines to postpone engine overhauls.
o Engine overhauls take planes out of service for periods as long as 18 months.

• Furthermore, cleaning an engine reduces its fuel consumption by roughly 1.2 percent.

o In addition to this, monthly cleaning is beneficial from the fuel consumption perspective as well.
o Cleaning an engine decreases its fuel usage by around 1.2 percent.

Conclusion: Cleaning the planes’ engines once a month will result in overall reduction of costs for Sparrow Airlines in the long term.

Question Stem Analysis
This question asks us to identify the assumption behind the airline’s plan.

Pre-thinking

Falsification Question
In what scenario is it possible that cleaning the planes’ engines once every month does not lead to a decrease in overall costs in the long term?
Given that

• Cleaning once every month can postpone engine overhauls that take planes out of service for up to 18 months.
• Cleaning the engines decrease fuel consumption by roughly 1.2%.

Thought Process
The Airlines plan to perform engine cleaning 6 times more often than what the industry standards enforce. The rationale behind this change is that cleaning can postpone engine overhauls that take planes out of service for long periods and also that monthly engine cleaning can reduce fuel consumption. If the cost of monthly engine cleaning does not exceed the losses created by engine overhauls and the higher fuel consumption that results from cleaning only once every six months, this plan can help reduce the overall cost of the airlines in the long term.

Falsification condition
What if the cost of monthly engine cleaning is higher than the losses created by engine overhauls and the cost of higher fuel consumption that results from cleaning only every six months?
In that case the conclusion breaks down as there is no overall reduction in costs.
Assumption
In the long term, the cost of monthly engine cleaning will not be higher than the losses created by engine overhauls and the higher fuel consumption that result from cleaning only every six months.

Answer Choice Analysis

(A) fuel prices are likely to rise in the near future and therefore cutting fuel (A) fuel (A) (A) fuel prices are likely to rise in the near future and therefore cutting fuel consumption is an important goal.
INCORRECT
Possibility of an increase in fuel price is not necessary for the plan to be valid. Hence this is not the correct choice.

(B) the cost of monthly cleaning of an airplane's engines is not significantly greater in the long run than is the cost of an engine overhaul.
CORRECT
This statement is in line with our pre-thinking and hence forms the correct answer.

(C) engine cleaning does not remove an airplane from service.
INCORRECT
If engine cleaning removes an airplane from service for a short time without affecting the revenue significantly, the conclusion will still hold. Hence this is not a correct assumption.

(D) Sparrow Airlines has had greater problems with engine overhauls and fuel consumption than other airlines have.
INCORRECT
This assumption is not needed for the plan to be valid. Hence, it is an incorrect choice.

(E) cleaning engines once a month will give Sparrow Airlines a competitive advantage over other airlines.
INCORRECT
Competitive advantage over other airlines is out of context since all the plan is concerned about is reducing the overall costs. Hence, it is an incorrect choice.