Aviation fuel prices ground pilots from pleasure trips

By Keith Purtell
Phoenix Staff Writer

July 23, 2008 12:11 am

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Jay Frazier, a pilot who occasionally does Civil Air Patrol missions out of Davis Field in Muskogee, said fuel prices have cut back on the time he gets to spend with family.
Frazier, 51, of Altus, said he used to just jump in his 1947 four-seat Navion and go visit his parents in Fort Worth.
“That hasn’t happened much in the last two months” he said. “My plane can carry up to 60 gallons. On Tuesday I paid $4.90 a gallon in Altus. When I go into the metropolitan areas, the prices just skyrocket to $6.15 a gallon. I talked to a commercial pilot who flew to Los Angeles, where he paid $7.50 a gallon.”
Frazier said the rising aviation fuel prices started hurting his travel and that of other pilots he knows about six weeks ago.
“Somebody has got to do something,” he said. “I’d like to see a break in it somewhere soon.”
Commercial airlines are trying to do something about it, and recently took the unprecedented move of unifying to write their customers.
The CEOs of 12 airlines, including American Airlines, Inc., Continental Airlines, Inc., and Southwest Airlines Co. wrote an open letter to customers saying “We need your help.” They urged customers to contact Congress or visit a Web site called www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.
The CEOs said “normal market forces are being dangerously amplified by poorly regulated market speculation.”
The letter went on to say that 20 years ago, 21 percent of oil contracts were purchased by speculators who trade oil on paper with no intention of ever taking delivery.
“Today, oil speculators purchase 66 percent of all oil futures contracts, and that reflects just the transactions that are known,” the letter said. “Speculators buy up large amounts of oil and then sell it to each other again and again. A barrel of oil may trade 20-plus times before it is delivered and used; the price goes up with each trade and consumers pick up the final tab. Some market experts estimate that current prices reflect as much as $30 to $60 per barrel in unnecessary speculative costs.”
The CEOs concluded that Congress must restore and enforce limits on speculation, provide more disclosure, transparency and sound market oversight.
“Together, these reforms will help cool the over-heated oil market and permit the economy to prosper,” they wrote. “The nation needs to pull together to reform the oil markets and solve this growing problem.”
Jerry Frazier, general manager at Davis Field, said he sells two types of fuel: 100 octane low-lead for regular piston-motor aircraft and jet-A fuel for turbine-motor aircraft. The low-lead currently costs $5.25 a gallon and the jet-A costs $5.45 a gallon.
An average of two aircraft per day visit the airfield.
“Our fuel sales are down tremendously,” Frazier said. “Because of the cost of fuel, the smaller aircraft are not doing recreational flying. Sales are 40 to 50 percent down.”
Frazier said flying enthusiasts have an expression for a recreational visit to another airport. They say “Well, I’m going to get a $100 hamburger.”
That’s changed, too.
“Now, it’s a $250 hamburger,” he said.

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