John Wayne airport begins to see effects of recession fade
January 24, 2011, 04:06 pm
The John Wayne airport in Santa Ana, California, has finally seen the sharp decline in general aviation flights slow down, after the number of planes it was servicing plummeted due to the recession, according to Daily Pilot.
The paper reported that the number of GA planes landing in the airport declined by 7 percent in 2010, which is a major improvement over the 28 percent and 29 percent decreases that the airport experienced in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Part of the cause for the major decrease in GA flights was the high cost of fuel available at the airport. According to the Daily Pilot, fuel costs at JWA had reached as high as $6 per gallon, about $1 more expensive than other nearby airports, which works out to about $75 more for most 75-gallon jet plane fuel tanks. The costs were a burden for private pilots and caused them to find other nearby destinations where fuel was more affordable.
Though GA flights returning to the airport will not bring JWA much additional revenue, since they primarily service commercial flights, the increasing affordability of the airport will save pilots money that they can, in turn, apply to other necessities, such as pilot insurance.
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