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- Украина, Львов
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[highlight]What's the future for avgas in Europe?[/highlight]
With avgas sales estimated to have fallen by 40 percent across Europe this year fuel suppliers are looking more closely than ever at the economics of the business, and some are getting out of avgas supply altogether. Amsterdam Schiphol and G[ch246]teborg Landwetter are the latest airports to abandon avgas, and the continuing loss of avgas at H24 IFR airports makes it ever more difficult to use a piston-engined aircraft as a serious business tool.
Lars Hjelmberg of AOPA Sweden says Shell Europe looks like revoking its avgas carnets across Europe from December 31st, because its affiliates will be taking MasterCard and Visa instead. Self-service stations will also work on these credit cards, but it’s not clear how operators who have negotiated discounts will fare using credit cards. There may also be tax implications because rudimentary invoices from automatic service stations do not always verify that energy, CO2 taxes and VAT have been paid, and even where they do, the VAT receipts may not satisfy the tax authorities.
Lars, who runs Hjelmco Oil in Sweden, says: “When I flew to Zurich via Budapest in the Navajo I found there was no avgas in Budapest and had to stop at Krakow in Poland. So the only IFR airport within 200 km of Budapest has no avgas. Across Europe, the supply situation is getting very bad.”
[highlight]Avgas prices 'spiralling out of control'[/highlight]
Dr Ivan Gatt, President of AOPA Malta, reports that the price of avgas on the island has recently been raised by 30 percent, and when excise duty and VAT are added, a litre now costs €2.60. That equates to $14.66 per US gallon. As Dr Gatt points out, avgas is $1.78 a gallon in parts of South America. Even though prices are rising there, too, they’re never going to suffer as much as the Europeans. Has the cost of avgas spiralled out of control elsewhere in Europe, too, Dr Gatt asks?
Lars Hjelmberg, whose company Hjelmco Oil provides more than 70 percent of the avgas used in his country, says the massive drop in volume in this recession is affecting prices. “Decreased volumes make a difference. It makes one wonder how long existing producers will continue to refine avgas.”
Given that volumes in Malta are exceptionally low – only a few thousand gallons a year – Dr Gatt and Lars Hjelmberg are looking into the practicality of Hjelmco providing isocontainers of avgas for an underground storage facility in Malta. There are many difficulties to be overcome.
[highlight]What's the future for avgas in Europe?[/highlight]
With avgas sales estimated to have fallen by 40 percent across Europe this year fuel suppliers are looking more closely than ever at the economics of the business, and some are getting out of avgas supply altogether. Amsterdam Schiphol and G[ch246]teborg Landwetter are the latest airports to abandon avgas, and the continuing loss of avgas at H24 IFR airports makes it ever more difficult to use a piston-engined aircraft as a serious business tool.
Lars Hjelmberg of AOPA Sweden says Shell Europe looks like revoking its avgas carnets across Europe from December 31st, because its affiliates will be taking MasterCard and Visa instead. Self-service stations will also work on these credit cards, but it’s not clear how operators who have negotiated discounts will fare using credit cards. There may also be tax implications because rudimentary invoices from automatic service stations do not always verify that energy, CO2 taxes and VAT have been paid, and even where they do, the VAT receipts may not satisfy the tax authorities.
Lars, who runs Hjelmco Oil in Sweden, says: “When I flew to Zurich via Budapest in the Navajo I found there was no avgas in Budapest and had to stop at Krakow in Poland. So the only IFR airport within 200 km of Budapest has no avgas. Across Europe, the supply situation is getting very bad.”
[highlight]Avgas prices 'spiralling out of control'[/highlight]
Dr Ivan Gatt, President of AOPA Malta, reports that the price of avgas on the island has recently been raised by 30 percent, and when excise duty and VAT are added, a litre now costs €2.60. That equates to $14.66 per US gallon. As Dr Gatt points out, avgas is $1.78 a gallon in parts of South America. Even though prices are rising there, too, they’re never going to suffer as much as the Europeans. Has the cost of avgas spiralled out of control elsewhere in Europe, too, Dr Gatt asks?
Lars Hjelmberg, whose company Hjelmco Oil provides more than 70 percent of the avgas used in his country, says the massive drop in volume in this recession is affecting prices. “Decreased volumes make a difference. It makes one wonder how long existing producers will continue to refine avgas.”
Given that volumes in Malta are exceptionally low – only a few thousand gallons a year – Dr Gatt and Lars Hjelmberg are looking into the practicality of Hjelmco providing isocontainers of avgas for an underground storage facility in Malta. There are many difficulties to be overcome.
