Gas prices go up and down right? Well, at least they have during the recent recession. Eighteen months ago, the price of oil peaked at a staggering $150 a barrel, so of course you'd expect the price of AVGAS to be hit to reflect this. Well, we are now told that oil is back up the dizzying heights of – wait for it - $85 a barrel, so of course the price of AVGAS is…….yes, higher than it was when oil was at $150 a barrel!!! Now I am no financial guru (although I do work in Financial services), but how the f*** do you square those numbers?
The current price of AVGAS at our home airfield of Gloucestershire (EGBJ) is now a gut-wrenching:
£1.72 a litre (including VAT). Holy f****** high AVGAS prices Batman!
Check this graph out!
Gloucester have historically been one of the ‘good guys’, consistently in the cheapest third of airfields on the mainland UK. I don’t know if they still are, but it is hard to believe.
The oil companies have of course wittered on about ‘ah yes, but UK government duty has gone up by 6p a litre’ and ‘ah yes, but we have to buy oil in US Dollars and the Pounds is weak against the Dollar’, sure, but not by anywhere near that much – do the math!
So, what are we going to do about it in the UK? Precisely nothing! We’ll whinge and bitch about it, then shrug our collective shoulders and say ‘oh well’. Of course the UK version of AOPA is the same organisation as the US AOPA in name only and does little to nothing to lobby effectively, they merely take annual subscriptions. And of course politicians will gabble on about it being a ‘green tax’ – how much of the duty is spent on green issues? Nothing at all, the UK government just goes around buying new nuclear weapons systems at a time when the super-powers are reducing their arsenals and fighting overseas wars that have nothing to do with the UK.
OK a vaguely incoherent rant I know. It is really hard for me as a motorist to think that £1.20p a litre for MOGAS is a bargain, but compared to £1.72p a litre for AVGAS???
OK, you guys grinning like Cheshire cats running on AVTUR conversions or Rotax engines can now say ‘I told you so’. Now, where is that brochure on Rotax powered VLA’s and ‘experimentals’.
Oh, and the ‘JTFC’ reference? Well if you have watched the excellent satire film ‘Team America’ you will know what it means, it is a extremely rude and blasphemous exclaimation!
