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The conclusion in this Avia Airlines memorandum is that a review of the airlines baggage-handling procedures will not further its goal of maintaining or increasing the number of Avia passengers. The authors line of reasoning is that the great majority of Avia passengers are happy with baggage handling at the airline because only one percent of passengers who traveled on Avia last year filed a complaint about Avias procedures. This argument is problematic in two important respects. First, the argument turns on the assumption that the 99 percent of Avia passengers who did not complain were happy with the airlines baggage-handling procedures. However, the author provides no evidence to support this assumption. The fact that, on the average, 9 out of 1000 passengers took the time and effort to formally complain indicates nothing about the experiences or attitudes of the remaining 991. It is possible that many passengers were displeased but too busy to formally complain, while others had no opinion at all. Lacking more complete information about passengers attitudes, we cannot assume that the great majority of passengers who did not complain were happy. Secondly, in the absence of information about the number of passengers per flight and about the complaint records of competing airlines, the statistics presented in the memorandum might distort the seriousness of the problem. Given that most modern aircraft carry as many as 300 to 500 passengers, it is possible that Avia received as many as 4 or 5 complaints per flight. The author unfairly trivializes this record. Moreover, the author fails to compare Avias record with those of its competitors. It is possible that a particular competitor received virtually no baggage-handling complaints last year. If so, Avias one percent complaint rate might be significant enough to motivate customers to switch to another airline. | 
