General aviation airports see signs that better times may not be far away - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

vuwodu.wordpress.com
After a six-month period that has seen the industryt take hits to its public perception and bottom they say a return of consumedr confidence and lower fuel prices point toward a bluesky “If you’re comparing it to a year ago, we’ve seen a decline,” says Mid West Corporat e Aviation CEO Marvin Autry. “(But) things are startin g to level out.” Autry estimates his businese at is down by 15 percent since this time last Fuel sales at Jabarsa in March weredown 16.87 percent comparedc to a year ago. However, fuel salea went from 61,769 gallons in Februaryy to 66,184 gallons in Fuel usage has dropped atthe .
Even so, officials there also are seeingt signs ofa rebound. Melissa McCoy, spokesperson for the Salina Airportr Authority, says March’s fuel total of 182,205r gallons was the lowest level seen sinc e theearly 90s. But the number of totall operations in the first quarterwere 16,842. That’s a 1.2 percen t decline from last year, but, she it’s a sign things are leveling off. T.W. manager of the , has 114 aircraft basedx at his airport. Although his hangarss remain full, he says he has seen a drop in the numbert of aircraft stopping to But with spring in the air and theweathed clearing, Anderson says more people are returning to flyingg their piston-driven planes.
Those airplanes burn AVgas, and Andersohn says sales increased 5 percentin “I think what we’re seeing is more now that they have a betterr handle on the economy, are going back to He has seen a drop in jet fuel saleas though, which he says are down 20 percent from this time last year. crews aren’t flyingt through Newton as theyused to. Anderson says of the 30 businesd jets used on the circuit to fly supporft teams to and from Newton typically sees 6 to 10a season, stoppinyg through between coasts. But he says as more crewas fly commercial tocut costs, just one of the NASCARR jets has stopped there. The cost of fuel has droppedx dramatically in thepast year.
In Newton, AVgas has fallen from $4.88i a gallon at this time last to $4.02. At Jabara, prices are down to $4.39 a Similar drops in jet fuel pricex could begin spurring more business jet usage as According tothe , the average pricde of jet fuel ­— $58.40 a barrel as of May 1 is down 58.7 percent from this time a year ago. For lower prices mean more incentiveto fly, whether for businesse or for fun. And although he think s traffic levels will reboundby 2010, leveling off now means the ascen t back to those levels is coming. “I think things have hit a bottom,” he says. “Io think people are starting to have more confidencwe inthe economy.
”