Airport fuel sales up, but pipeline cyberattack could affect May receipts, manager says

The terminal for the South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field. (News-Times file)
The terminal for the South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field. (News-Times file)

Fuel sales in nearly every category were up last month at South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field, members of the El Dorado Airport Commission heard Monday.

Johnathan Estes, airport manager, reported that the number of gallons of jet fuel and Avgas (aviation gasoline) that were sold in April exceeded the numbers for March.

In April, the airport’s fixed-based operation recorded its highest jet fuel sales for the year with 20,772 gallons sold.

Not only did the number exceed sales for March — 17,457 —, it also eclipsed sales in April 2020 — 13,437 — and pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) sales in the three preceding years.

Jet fuel sales for the month of April were 11,557 in 2017; 17,433 in 2018; and 18,747 in 2019.

Sales for January and February of 2021 were 16,949 and 10,219 gallons, respectively.

Total annual jet fuel sales dropped between 2019 and 2020 — going from 240,404 to 202,745 gallons.

Estes previously said that though COVID-19 slowed activity at the airport last year, jet fuel sales fared better than expected.

Monthly totals for 2020 lagged behind those of 2019 in each month, except August and September.

Totals for the two months in 2019 were 17,144 and 18,313, respectively, compared to 19,880 and 20,708 for the corresponding months in 2020.

August and September fall within the annual period when aviation activity is typically at its highest.

Sales for Avgas, which is used for smaller airplanes and helicopters, for 2021 have mostly fallen below sales for the first four months of 2020, with one exception.

In January, 1,758 gallons of Avgas were sold, versus 1,219 gallons in January of 2020.

February posted the lowest monthly Avgas sales within the past four years at SARA, with only 580 gallons sold.

In the same month in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, 2,845, 987, 2,202 and 1,741 gallons of Avgas were sold, respectively.

The second highest amount of Avgas for this year, 1,439 gallons, was sold in April, up from 1,163 gallons in March.

Comparatively, Avgas sales in March and April were lower than sales during the corresponding months in 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017.

Total Avgas sales at SARA came in at 23,744 for 2020, exceeding the 2019 total at 22,364.

Estes said fuel sales for 2021 appear to be encouraging so far, though he is waiting for the city to sort out its financial records to determine true revenues and expenditures.

Local accounting firm Emrich and Scroggins is working on the matter in the absence of a city treasurer.

The position was vacated in March when El Dorado City Council members terminated former City Treasurer Trena Dean and Emrich and Scroggins is working to reconcile bank statements from 2020 and 2021.

On Monday, Estes gave airport commissioners a heads-up, explaining that the financial report for May is “probably going to look bad” because of a cyberattack that was reported May 7 on a major gas pipeline in the U.S.

A ransomware cyberattack reportedly forced the shutdown of a natural gas line belonging to Colonial Pipeline.

The line runs from Houston to New Jersey and supplies nearly half of the fuel that is used on the East Coast and Estes said the attack could affect aviation fuel sales.

He told airport commissioners that SARA’s FBO is tankering about 9,000 gallons of Avgas and 23,000 gallons of jet fuel.

“So, we’re either going to have 23,000 gallons of jet fuel that we can sell at fair market price or we’re going to have 23,000 of extremely cheap jet fuel,” Estes said.

He provided a breakdown of SARA’s fuel sales for April, reporting that Essential Air Service carrier Southern Airways Express purchased 37.4% of jet fuel at SARA in April.

Transient aircraft made up the majority of jet fuel sales last month at 47.7% and aircraft that is based at SARA rounded out the month with 15% of jet fuel sales.

“Transient’s up quite a bit. Murphy USA has been flying quite a bit … They have bought 8,000 gallons (of jet fuel) year to date and 4,000 of that was last month alone,” Estes said, adding, “The rest has been spread out over the first quarter of the year.”

On the Avgas side, transient aircraft fueled up with 84.9% of sales in April, while based aircraft bought 15.1%, Estes reported.

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