P $7-4$: The Corporate Jet

A large corporation maintains a fleet of three $30-$passenger corporate jets that provide

$($weather permitting$)$ daily scheduled service between Detroit and several cities that are home

to its production facilities. The jets are used for business, not personal, travel. Corporate

executives book reservations through a centralized transportation office. Because of the

limited number of seats available, the planes almost always fly full, at least in the nonwinter

months. Excess demand for seats is assigned by executive rank within the firm.

The executive's budget is charged for the flight at the end of the month. The

charge is based on the jet's total operating expenses during the month $($including fuel, pilot's

salary and fringes, maintenance, licensing fees, landing fees, and $\frac{1}{12}$ of the annual

accounting depreciation$)$ divided by the actual passenger miles logged in the month. This

rate per passenger mile is multiplied by each passenger's mileage flown in the month.

Required:

a$.$ Describe the formula being used to calculate the cost per passenger mile flown.

b$.$ As passenger miles flown increases, what happens to the cost per passenger mile?

c$.$ Describe what causes the monthly charge per passenger mile flown to fluctuate.

d$.$ What other problems are present in the current system and what improvements do you

suggest making?