The article Fliers Trapped on Tarmac Push for Rules on Release ( USA Today, July 28, 2009)

The article €œFliers Trapped on Tarmac Push for Rules on Release€ ( USA Today, July 28, 2009) gave the following data for 17 airlines on the number of flights that were delayed on the tarmac for at least 3 hours for the period between October 2008 and May 2009:

The figure at the bottom of the page 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 3 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 part of a newspaper article on flight delays that could accompany the dotplot of the rate per 10,000 flights data.

Transcribed Image Text:

Number of Delays 10,000 Flghts Rate Per Airline 1 4.9 4.1 2.8 ExpressJet Continental Delta Comair American Eagle US Airways JetBlue American Northwest Mesa United Frontier Sky West Pinnacle Atlantic Southeast AirTran Southwest 81 29 L.6 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.1 46 18 48 24 17 29 29 13