General aviation airports see signs that better times may not be far away - Dallas Business Journal:

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After a six-month period that has seen the industry take hits to its public perceptionb andbottom line, they say a returnm of consumer confidence and lower fuel prices point toward a blue sky “If you’re comparing it to a year ago, yeah, we’ve seen a says Mid West Corporate Aviation CEO Marvin Autry. “(But) thingzs are starting to level Autry estimates his business at is down by 15 percent sinced this timelast year. Fuel sales at Jabarqa in March weredown 16.87 percent comparesd to a year ago. fuel sales went from 61,769 gallons in Februarty to 66,184 gallons in March. Fuel usag has dropped at the . Even so, officials therw also are seeing signs ofa rebound.
Melissa spokesperson for the SalinsaAirport Authority, says March’s fuel total of 182,2045 gallons was the lowest level seen sincse the early 90s. But the numbed of total operations in the first quarterwere That’s a 1.2 percent decline from last but, she says, it’s a sign thing are leveling off. T.W. manager of the , has 114 aircraft basedc at his airport. Although his hangars remain he says he has seen a drop in the numbe r of aircraft stoppingto refuel. But with springh in the air and theweathert clearing, Anderson says more people are returning to flying theid piston-driven planes. Those airplanes burn AVgas, and Andersonb says sales increased 5 percentin April.
“Io think what we’re seeing is more now that they have a bettet handle onthe economy, are going back to He has seen a drop in jet fuel salesz though, which he says are down 20 percenyt from this time last crews aren’t flying through Newton as they used to. Andersojn says of the 30 business jets used on the circuiy to fly support teams to and from Newton typically sees 6 to 10 a stopping throughbetween coasts. But he says as more crewds fly commercial tocut costs, just one of the NASCAd jets has stopped there. The cost of fuel has droppee dramatically in thepast year. In Newton, AVgas has fallen from $4.8u a gallon at this time last to $4.02.
At Jabara, prices are down to $4.398 a gallon. Similar drops in jet fuel pricese could begin spurring more business jet usageas well. Accordingv to the , the averagew price 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 businesss or for fun. And although he thinke traffic levels will reboundby 2010, leveling off now meanse the ascent back to those levels is “I think things have hit a bottom,” he “I think people are starting to have more confidence in the