[boxey]

Agreed. People forget that in addition to the nominal cost of a new tracking system ($120k PER PLANE in the article, not including control center cost), just the weight alone costs about $3k/year for each 1kg added to the plane. Add the yearly communication service, maintainance, depreciation costs to this, and we're soon gonna be paying $3k/plane ticket.

In contrast, since MH370, Inmarsat has changed the time period for handshakes with their terminals from one hour to 15 minutes. Cost: $0.

[magicalist]

> $3k/year for each 1kg added to the plane

sorry, offtopic, but this is an interesting number. Do you have a source for more on this? Most of the search hits I can find are discussing economics of spaceflight.

[greeneggs]

Usually you find these kinds of figures in articles about 3D printing aircraft parts. For example, "By reducing an airplane’s weight by just one kilogram, an airline can save $1,300 in fuel costs per year, according to the [2011] IBISWorld report." [1] The 2014 report can be purchased here [2]. Of course, these numbers will depend on the kind of plane and its utilization, as well as fuel costs.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/technology/3d-printing-coming-to...

[2] https://www.ibisworld.com/industry/3d-printer-manufacturing....

[z-e-r-o]

I don't understand why such a difference between what you are saying and a portable SPOT device [1] which is pretty much standard for extreme sports nowadays. A SPOT device is only 114g, tracks every 2.5 minutes, and runs on batteries for days. $170 for the device and $200 for the service per year.

Actually if passengers start carrying these devices (while sitting next to the window) that's already a solution.

[1] http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=100

[warfangle]

On the other hand, airlines make tens of billions in extra revenue from those little fees to make it just a little bit less like a cattle trough.