Redbird Newsroom
Overwhelming response met goals three weeks ahead of schedule, but supply can’t meet demand
“In preparing for this experiment, we planned for traffic averaging eight times normal,” said Jeff Van West, spokesman for the Skyport experiment to sell avgas for one dollar during October. “Actual response has been four times higher that that—over 30 times our normal volume. By the end of the first week, we’d reached our data collection goal for the entire month.”
How does fuel price really influence aviation activity? This October, a group of companies will use the Skyport aviation laboratory, in San Marcos, Texas, to find out.
“This experiment isn’t about the cost of avgas,” says Jeff Van West, Director of Redbird Media, and spokesman for the experiment. “It’s true that we’re selling avgas for $1 per gallon for the entire month of October. But we’re really using fuel price as a catalyst to stimulate activity and generate data. Of course $1 gas will increase flying activity, if by novelty alone. That’s not the point. The core question is: increase it by how much and for how long? A ten-fold increase says fuel price plays a huge role. A 40-percent increase? Maybe not so much. And if fuel price isn’t the barrier, what is?” Integral in the experiment will be data collected on all pilots fueling their aircraft at the Skyport, located at San Marcos Municipal Airport (KHYI).
