OnePlane Airlines has two flights a day from Pittsburgh to Seattle. It has two planes that it could use on the route. One costs $24,000 to operate and can hold 100 people, the other costs $40,000 to operate and can hold 200 people. Whichever plane is chosen makes the two flights a day. (That is either both flights are the big plane or both flights are the small plane.) The current price of a ticket is $400. The smaller plane is always full, but the bigger plane averages 160 people on the Pittsburgh-Seattle route.
a) Find the average cost per passenger for each type of plane.
b) Suppose the airline hires you as a marketing consultant and wants to know which plane to choose and whether its price is optimal. What advice would you offer?