The article “Fliers Trapped on Tarmac Push for Rules on Release” (USA Today, July 28, 2009) gave the following data for 17 airlines on number of flights that were delayed on the tarmac for at least 3 hours for the period from October 2008 to May 2009:

Airline Number of Delays Rate per 10,000 Flights ExpressJet 93 4.9 Continental 72 4.1 Delta 81 2.8 Comair 29 2.7 American Eagle 44 1.6 US Airways 46 1.6 JetBlue 18 1.4 American 48 1.3 Northwest 24 1.2 Mesa 17 1.1 United 29 1.1 Frontier 5 0.9 SkyWest 29 0.8 Pinnacle 13 0.7 Atlantic Southeast 11 0.6 AirTran 7 0.4 Southwest 11 0.1 Figure EX-1.27 shows two dotplots: one displays the number of delays data, and one displays the rate per 10,000 flights data.

a. If you were going to rank airlines based on flights delayed on the tarmac for at least three hours, would you use the total number of flights data or the rate per 10,000 flights data? Explain the reason for your choice.

b. Write a short paragraph that could be used as part of a newspaper article on flight delays that could accompany the dotplot of the rate per 10,000 flights data.