The cooler, wetter weather that Hot Springs has experienced for much of the year has helped put a damper on wildfires in the area, but has been detrimental to fuel sales at Hot Springs Memorial Field.
George Downie, airport director, said Western Pilot Service, the Arizona-based company that uses single-seat air tankers to combat wildfires in Arkansas under contract with the Arkansas Forestry Commission, said the company probably flew fewer missions in the first half of its contract period in 2014 than in previous years.
Based at the Hot Springs airport, where they maintain a hangar year-round, the company fights fires in the state February through April, and August through October.
"This weather will curtail their operations quite a bit," Downie said Wednesday.
"Earlier this year, we had a real dry spell up until about a week before their contract started in February, then it started raining and we had a pretty wet February, March and April," he said.
As a consequence, the company only purchased $18,000 in fuel, which is about $10,000 below what they would normally purchase, Downie said.
Even though March, April, September and October are historically dry periods in Arkansas, and fuel sales would be higher for Western Pilot Service, Downie said they have not flown a lot during the last three years.
"They are a good revenue source for the airport, but the total fuel sales to them in 2013 was only $19,000. In 2009, they bought $22,000 in fuel, which was cheaper then, so they purchased more fuel," he said.
Downie said there is no way to see if a trend is developing, which makes preparing a budget harder, since the weather is so uncertain.
"Predictions are for the coolest, wettest summer in history, and we've already had some record low highs," he said.
"If this weather holds up the way it is, we'll probably have a very slow August through October in fuel sales to Western Pilot," he said.
Downie said the Arkansas Forestry Commission generally flies a lot of planes out of Malvern, which stop in Hot Springs and purchase fuel, but that is not occurring this year, either.
"They are probably flying a little to keep their pilots current, and if they don't fly, we don't sell fuel," he said.
In addition, a lot of corporate fliers will not come in if the weather is cloudy and rainy, which is just playing it safe, he said. And fuel sales for this year's live thoroughbred horse racing season were disappointing, since the large Boeing 727 horse transport planes now fly into Little Rock instead of Hot Springs.
"That is an average loss of 27,000 gallons of fuel every year. If we had another 500 feet of runway, they probably wouldn't do that (go to Little Rock), but the Federal Aviation Administration would not approve any type (runway) extension because our based aircraft don't call for it. We can land 737s, and 757s, but the 727 is a runway hog and takes all of it landing and taking off," Downie said.
Downie said the peak year for fuel sales was 2006 when nearly a million gallons was sold, but "the economy went south after that. We saw a decline for 2007-2010, and then it just leveled off to about 635,000 gallons a year."
And, even though SeaPort Airlines, the city's air passenger carrier, is doing a good job of staying on schedule and their route changes do not appear to have affected the number of passengers they are carrying, the number of paying passengers is not enough to support the airline and not enough to satisfy FAA requirements for the per-seat subsidy the airline receives, Downie said.
"So we, and the airline, have basically been given notice that in the next one and a half years, they are going to have to come up with a plan to cut costs even more. They redesigned their flights to Dallas, and only make one flight a day now with a stop in El Dorado, which shares the subsidy for that flight with Hot Springs, and they still have two flights to Memphis," Downie said.
The company also switched from the Pilatus PT-12 aircraft to a Cessna Grand Caravan, which uses less fuel, so the company purchases about half the fuel they previously did, Downie said.
But, while fuel sales may be down, improvements continue to be made at the airport through federal and state grants.
"We have a grant coming from the FAA which will complete Phase III of a multi-phase project in redesigning the runway taxiways to be in compliance with FAA designs," Downie said.
"We have some not-so-straight areas of taxiways. They run parallel to the runway for about 2,000 to 3,000 feet and then jog out a little. So, many years ago, the FAA recommended that we develop a plan to have a completely parallel taxiway to the runway."
Downie said plans call for combining Taxiway Alpha, which is west of the terminal building, with Taxiway Delta, east of the terminal.
"That is the ultimate plan but that's six or seven years down the road," he said.
There are also plans to expand the terminal parking apron to provide more room for routine airport tenant operations without encroaching on the parking area for larger corporate aircraft.
Local on 07/25/2014