RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:In store in ‘24 on the weather side of FLYHT’s businessAMDAR is not meant to be a profit center for the airlines or providers. Typically you might see an AMDAR provider paying a max of $0.10 per obversation. Also, AMDAR / WMO reports that many of the current airlines do not charge NOAA for the data, but have burried the cost into their ACARS or data transmission max data budgets.
- Do the airlines get paid for producing these data?
- No, the airlines allow their aircraft to collect the data so that airline and NWS meteorologists will be able to produce better weather forecasts and warnings.
Also, according to the latest WMO newletter, in 2023 FLYHT generated an average of 581 TAMDAR soundings per day from the 66 of 129 active aircraft. Assuming they are getting paid $0.05 per observation (plus cost of data transmission) which is a high number according to the WMO, that means 66 installations are potentially generating $1917 per day or $70,000 per year. Even double that at $140,000 per year in weather revenue for 66 planes or $2100 per year per plane. That is not that impressive for the investment and time. I know they might get paid for the development work, and equipment costs, but those are usually a wash in government financed research like this. What am I missing here?