Myrtle Air Express decided to offer direct service from Cleveland to Myrtle Beach. Management must decide between a full-price service using the company’s new fleet of jet aircraft and a discount service using smaller capacity commuter planes. It is clear that the best choice depends on the market reaction to the service Myrtle Air offers. Management developed estimates of the contribution to profit for each type of service based upon two possible levels of demand for service to Myrtle Beach: strong and weak. The following table shows the estimated quarterly profits (in thousands of dollars):
Demand for Service
Service Strong Weak
Full price $960 -$490
Discount $670 $320
1. What is the decision to be made, what is the chance event, and what is the consequence for this problem?
2. How many decision alternatives are there?
Number of decision alternatives =
3. How many outcomes are there for the chance event?
Number of outcomes =
4. If nothing is known about the probabilities of the chance outcomes, what is the recommended decision using the optimistic, conservative, and minimax regret approaches?
a. Optimistic approach
b. Conservative approach
c. Minimax regret approach