Southern California FBO Among Latest to Offer Unleaded Aviation Gasoline Alternative

Golden West Jet Center at Oxnard Airport (KOXR) is the latest California FBO to offer Swift’s UL94 unleaded aviation gasoline.

The Oxnard Airport FBO received its first shipment last month and is now ready to sell UL94 to aircraft with Swift Fuels STCs. The move by Golden West Jet Center to offer the fuel is part of a nationwide effort to reduce lead emissions from piston-engine aircraft.

In February 2022, the FAA and industry partners established the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) initiative to eliminate leaded aviation fuels in piston-engine aircraft safely by the end of 2030, including by using unleaded avgas alternatives such as Swift’s UL94. A more environmentally friendly avgas option, UL94 does not contain tetraethyllead and currently satisfies the requirements for over 66% of the U.S. piston fleet.Bringing UL94 to airports has been a challenge for some FBOs as many airports do not have multiple avgas tanks.“It took several months to work through the logistics on how we were going to store the fuel,” said Priscilla Howden, General Manager of Golden West Jet Center. Golden West will also continue to sell 100LL avgas, which is stored in a separate fuel farm tank and is pumped from a separate fuel truck.