An airline that has made sure its airplanes won't disappear

Re:An airline that has made sure its airplanes won't disappear by ern on Monday January 05, 2015 @02:43PM (#8840662)

There is no doubt that it would be costly to add real-time tracking and telemetry. However planes going missing is also very expensive.

I have to wonder if airlines would be more accepting of the costs of monitoring equipment if they paid for search and rescue themselves instead of relying on governments to cover the costs. A classic case of privatizing profits and nationalizing costs.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:An airline that has made sure its airplanes won't disappear by boxey on Monday January 05, 2015 @03:09PM (#8840818)

Wrong, commercial passenger planes going missing are much less expensive. Commercial plane disappearance is close to a 'black swan' event (1/10years) [1]. Tyler Durden this:

* search and rescue for this rare event: $50M/10year = $5M/year

* cost of tracking system: $20k/year amortized cost per system * 5k aircrafts = $100M/year

The airline industry as a whole has made a cumulative loss during its 100-year history. Airlines are already nationalized one way or another, like it or not. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aerial_disappearances [2] http://www.johnkay.com/2005/09/27/airlines-and-the-canine-fe...

[ Parent | on HN ]