ACARS
 

How much does an ACARS message actually cost? Is there a cost per character or per whole message? I know it's way cheaper in VHF range rather than on the satcom but is there a standard pricing system or does it vary airline to airline?

It's my understanding that each Transmission / Reception costs US 25 cents, irrespective of the length of the content.

Standing by for correction.

Regards,

Old Smokey

Proxypilot, did you come across one of these fellows who things that they are real cost savers, explaining people how costly an ACARS request for weather is :rolleyes: ?

From what I have heared it is around the US$ 0,25 as stated by Old Smokey, but like him I am not sure, I am just a user. :ooh:

Cheers for the info :ok:

alatnariver - You guessed correct, it annoys the hell out of me. These guys think nothing of the cost of putting on an extra tonne for no justifiable reason other than "I always like to have a 1/2 tonne to a tonne extra" but would rather me spend 5 mins listening on a volmet/ATIS because ACARS costs the company too much!!!!!!! :ugh:

I believe at my company they pay a flat rate,and get all messages included (weather by VHF or Sat). As has been said each company will make their own arrangements to get the best value.

I always found it useful for giving mx a heads up about a broken airplane I was bringing their way. It gives them lead time to sort out the problem and arrange for parts to get started that way.

Another good aspect is allowing the company to contact you to let you know about wx, atc issues or whatever else was going to affect your flight giving you time to sort things out ahead of time. Also, when things went downhill and you knew you weren't going to end up at the destination as planned it gave the company some input as to where they really wanted the airplane instead of just a legal alternate.

The downside was when that old favorite showed up, 'contact crew scheduling, please acknowledge'. Somehow that always showed up the last leg of a trip before days off. Go figure.

The cost depends upon the contract that the airline has signed with the service provider e.g. ARINC, SITA...

Normally there is a certain number of kilobytes of traffic included with each aircraft that is registered to use ACARS but then there is an extra charge for any overages of that limit. Normally most airlines sign a contract with a primary service provider and then have contacts with secondary providers. The cost of an ACARs message on the secondary providers can be 5 to 10 times the cost of the same message on the primary provider.

Well, my philosophy is if they didn't want us to use them, they wouldn't put them in the aircraft! End of the day, I use it and don't really care about the cost. One phone patch through Stockholm Radio can sure pay for a lot of ACARS messages!

ACARS message cost will depend entirely upon the contractural agreement between your company and their service provider. It would not be unusual for a rate for x nbr of kilo bytes free and then a fee per byte thereafter. At the end of the day the information they convey can save thousands and this when compared to the cost of the message doesn't even bare consideration.
Send the message whenever you must. Those that worry about the cost of an ACARS message clearly haven't got a handle on the bigger economic picture.

EM, totally agree, have heard some captains of the older generation say that TAF, METAR through ACARS is not valid weather. Only volmets are. And they would happily have the other pilot out of the loop for an hour or more just listening to nonessential volmets. No wonder ATC can't reach them :ugh: