As fuel prices go up, some private planes using the Columbia-Owens Downtown Airport are staying down.
The rising fuel prices and declining air traffic caused a nearly 5.2 percent decrease in the number of gallons the airport sold in June 2005 compared with the same month a year earlier, airport manager Jim Hamilton said. That drop in fuel-sale volume was offset by a 14.5 percent increase in fuel-sale revenue. Still, fuel profit is down.
The reduced number of flights taking off from the downtown airport, which serves private aircraft, is noticeable, Hamilton said.
While the price of jet fuel has jumped about 60 percent nationally from a year ago, the different fuel prices at Columbia-Owens have gone up more than 20 percent.
The airport, between Rosewood Drive and Shop Road, sells two types of fuel.
Aviation jet fuel, which is similar to diesel, cost $3.29 per gallon Monday, up from $2.59 per gallon in June 2004.
Aviation gasoline, a 100-octane fuel with a low amount of lead needed to avoid damaging airplane engines, cost $4.01 per gallon Monday, up from $3.33 per gallon in June 2004.
Although fuel is pricier for planes than for cars, not all plane owners are worried. Some plane owners fly for pleasure rather than necessity, unlike many people who must drive cars to work.
Retiree James E. Clark, a former vice president of AT&T and NCR, says the cost of flying his personal planes is similar to what some peers spend on boating or golfing. Anyone who could afford to spend $40,000 on a second car and its gasoline could perhaps spend a few thousand more on a small airplane and its gas, Clark said.
Clark keeps an experimental RV-6 plane at the Columbia-Owens airport, and he keeps a Piper Archer II near his second home in Florida, he said.
I try to fly every week, Clark said. Its a matter of priorities. ... If the cost of golf is $100 a month, and (prices) go up two or three times, you dont quit playing golf, but you may golf less.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
