Read the excerpt and answer the questions:
Following the shock of revenue losses from business travelers in years past, airlines are now offering a broader range of low-cost fares aimed at corporate fliers, whose spending habits remain one of the industry's most difficult problems. This strategy is gaining traction as an important test of widely held assumptions about the elasticity of business fares, and it could eventually be critical to the industry's turnaround. Airlines have been hesitant to comment on the success of discounted business fares. "This is the most closely guarded secret in the business right now," said one airline executive.
(1) What are the widely held assumptions? and what factors support this assumption?
(2) What factors indicate that this assumption is no longer correct, and what effect would this have on the price elasticity of business fares?
(3) Why would the success of discounted business fares be an important secret to keep?