Why isn't Avgas getting cheaper ?

[PompeyPaul]

Unleaded has dropped from £1.19 a litre to just £0.94 at my local garage. Whilst avgas remains at it's high of £1.50 to £1.60 a litre. Why is avgas, and diesel, still so much higher given oil is dropping in price :*?

[flightlevel1985]

Maybe something to do with it being a more specialised market when compared to petrol/diesel ?? I guess that the manufacturers believe they can charge higher prices due to this.

[batninth]

Might be something to do with stocks moving much more slowly, so we're still using the higher cost stuff that is in the distribution channel? But then one could argue that we should have seen a delayed price rise earlier in the year

Just a thought

[flightlevel1985]

Small number of people getting very rich at our expense ... Wouldn't surprise me if somehow Gordon Brown is behind it ...

[Zulu Alpha]

If I remember correctly car fuel didn't come down in price until Morrisons broke ranks and said they were reducing their prices. Then suddenly all the rest had to follow.

Are there any airfields that have reduced prices? If so we should try and patronise them as much as possible. This is the only way to put pressure on the rest.

Lowest price I have seen is £1.53 at Old Buckenham recently.

ZA

[pcdabbler]

It's DISGRACEFUL. Avgas went up every week for four sucessive weeks at my local field, but it's a lot slower to come down. Rip off Britain at it's worst. Just done some mini research for City Airport manchester ... November 2007, crude prices just over $80 per Barrell £1.25+VAT November 2008 Crude price $55 a Barrell, 1.54+VAT

Someone is making a killing.

[wsmempson]

Avgas £1.20 pl plus vat at Denham.

[pcdabbler]

Good one Denham, you are charging the correct rate for fuel !

[RatherBeFlying]

The current issue of Flying points out that avgas is made in batches while avtur is in continuous production; so, the avgas you are buying today may have been made many months ago when the feedstock was expensive. The refiner is not about to undercut his own stocks; so, won't be making avgas until he has about sold off his current investment.

[matspart3]

£1.25 (£1.47 inc VAT) at Gloucester, down 16ppl from last month.

The lag is normally down to volume sold. Small operators will still be selling the stock they bought 3 months ago at the peak. The Pound going pear-shaped against the Dollar isn't helping matters. If we were still up around the $2=£1 mark, it would probably be close to the forecourt price. Duty hasn't changed, it's still around 30ppl.

[A and C]

Do you write for The Daily Mail?

[sammypilot]

There are very few airfields where you can find a multiple choice of supplier therefore you are normally dealing with a monopoly situation. The best option when flying to another airfield is to check the price of their Avgas and compare the price with you home field. The other thing that has disappeared in recent years is a discount on the landing fee if you are uplifting fuel.

[PlasticPilot]

One of my ex-homebase in Switzerland was changing the price of AVGAS only when the tank feeding the pumps was re-filled. This occured once or twice per year (large tank - small airport), so the fluctuations were extremely slow, and the airport managers anticipated as much as they could to get the best prices.

[GonTek]

Face it boy's and girl's we are getting screwed every which way and what they give back they take twice as much somewhere else, it's called democracy.

[READY MESSAGE]

Don't forget that airports buy AVGAS at thousands of litres at a time (I know one refuelling company that will only deliver a minimum of 20,000 litres) so it will take some time for this expensive fuel to work through the system and be replaced with cheaper fuel.

[civil aviation]

Greed, minimal turnover and pound decline are all factors in the latest moan but a bit less is only minor good news which won't affect the basic fact that GA in UK is utter and total .... , most certainly with your own money.

AVGAS in Florida was over $5 but is already under $3 (per US gallon) which is under 40p per litre. After adding that to much cheaper hire, better weather, no landing charges anywhere AND not having to put-up with the pompous p....s at plenty of U.K. 'clubs' (so-called), no wonder many give up in U.K. and now fly for pleasure elsewhere.

[Mark1234]

Very true.. funny how that latency didn't apply to the price rises tho :E

[doubleu-anker]

PompeyPaul

"Why isn't Avgas getting cheaper ?"

Basically we are being screwed in turn by OPEC and the oil companies (while the gov turns a blind eye).

The sooner people wake up to this fact and do something about it, the better we will all be. How? Blockades and boycotts, simple. Time we stopped bending over and stood up for ourselves!

Oh BTW vote this tax and spend govenment out next time round.

[Captain Smithy]

doubleu-anker: "Oh BTW vote this tax and spend govenment out next time round."

And vote for whom instead? The Tories, who have converted to Environmentalism and have repeatedly stated that they will restrict aviation for "Environmental" reasons, and will slash services in order to give the rich few some tax cuts, and stuff the rest of us? The FibDems, who appear now-and-again on the news making inane, thoughtless mutterings about anything in general? Who else is there? The current lot may be bad but things could be much much worse, especially under Conservative rule, for aviation. Anyone, especially those in Aviation, who thinks that voting Tory will cure all our problems needs their brains examined. :rolleyes:

There again if you live in Dubai I suppose yoo won't need to worry about "voting out tax-and-spend Governments" in the UK. :rolleyes:

In terms of AVGAS prices in Scotland the price is still up at around £1.80/litre. The price will come down eventually, remember the fuel which is being sold now was probably bought months ago at a much higher price, so it will get cheaper... eventually.

Does anyone know what AVTUR is retailing at these days, purely out of interest?

Smithy

[Mariner9]

Guys, I'd be interested in your business case for reducing the price of a niche commodity where the volume sold did not appreciably change despite a 50% rise in prices?

[PompeyPaul]

Guys, I'd be interested in your business case for reducing the price of a niche commodity where the volume sold did not appreciably change despite a 50% rise in prices?Given how quiet Farnborough is now days, it looks like the amount sold has collapsed due to the "R" word. Remember when you sometimes had to ask your next frequency to telephone Farnborough to tell them you'd changed because you couldn't get a word in anywhere ? I change to Farnborough now and it seems I've got the whole frequency to myself....

[Mariner9]

Well even if flying has decreased due to the R word, there's still no incentive to reduce Avgas prices unless any of the refiners/distributors/sellers feel that they are losing market share due to price. In fact, if anything, a significant drop in demand will increase transportation, storage, finance and infrastructure unit costs.

[batninth]

Guys, I'd be interested in your business case for reducing the price of a niche commodity where the volume sold did not appreciably change despite a 50% rise in prices?

Ah, price elasticity I believe. Of course, if we listen to Mr Porter, there is always the threat of competitive pressure, so your business case holds as long as you're the only player in town. But when the airfield only a few miles away drops it's prices then your cost per litre holds but on very few litres sold.

[Min Sink]

Have a look on www.TheHangar.co.uk - UK AVGAS Price Data (http://www.thehangar.co.uk/fuel/fuel.shtml) for the cheapest prices. Anyone can update so go and fill in you local airfields price.