Airport Master Plan 2012 - City of Waterville

3) Facility Maintenance
Unlike other airports of similar size and function, WVL lacks a full-time maintenance staff with specific
capabilities required to maintain all areas of the airfield. Therefore, costs associated with maintaining
airport electrical infrastructure, such as the runway lighting, or maintaining airfield pavements, such as
crack repair, are accrued through the hire of outside contractors. The cost and need of facility
maintenance can vary greatly. These costs were as low as $12,339.46 in 2007 and as high as $21,034 in
2009. Since 2006, Facility Maintenance costs averaged approximately $16,000 annually.
4) Equipment Maintenance
Considering the geographic location of the Airport and the associated weather the airport experiences,
airport related equipment, such as tractors, plows, trucks, etc., used to maintain the Airport are subjected
to elements that affect the service life of the equipment. Furthermore, the need to repair and/or replace
necessary equipment can be unexpected, and result in unanticipated costs for a given year.
Aside, from using the estimated service life of a particular piece of equipment, trends associated with
equipment maintenance and repair costs are difficult to determine. This is evident between 2006, when
equipment maintenance costs at the Airport were estimated at roughly $7,000, and 2007, when these costs
topped $31,000. The average annual costs for equipment maintenance between 2006 and 2010 were
approximately $14,000. Generally, as equipment ages, associated maintenance costs increase. Accurately
tracking these costs can inform decision makers and assist in determining when to replace equipment.
5) Motor Fuels
Fuel associated with the operation of airport related equipment can be costly and hard to anticipate since
the oil costs, and the level of use for airport equipment is based upon a number of unknown variables. For
airports located in the Northeast, and New England the intensity and frequency of winter storms can
drastically affect the costs associated with snow removal operations in a given year. Motor fuels at
Waterville in 2006 were approximately $4,800 and increased to almost $11,000 the following year. In
2010, the costs for motor fuel at the Airport totaled approximately $8,500. For the entire five year period,
motor costs averaged approximately $7,000 annually and as stated, experienced a fluctuation of roughly
$6,000 between 2006 and 2007.
6) Aviation Fuel
The topic of aviation fuel and the Waterville Airport is unique for a number of reasons; mainly because
the airport operates the FBO and has been since 2004. As identified within the financial tables, fuel sales
can be one of the most significant revenue generating streams at airports of similar size and function.
Typical of General Aviation airports with few tenants, revenues generated through aviation fuel sales can
often determine whether an airport is considered “self sufficient”, or not. The profitability of fuel sales are
mostly dependant on the volume and the capacity of an airport to attract based and transient turbine
aircraft that require large quantities of Jet A fuel.
The manner in which General Aviation airports generate aviation fuel revenue is determined by the
manner in which the fuel is sold. Airports with one or more FBOs typically purchase wholesale aviation
fuel and operate a fuel storage facility. Typically, at airport’s that own their own fuel farm, FBO’s who
sell aviation fuel to customers at retail price, purchase their fuel from the airport and are charged a
flowage fee, which is a fee levied by the airport per gallon of fuel sold. Since the City of Waterville
currently operates the FBO, revenues generated through the sale of aviation fuel are maximized since the
fuel is purchased at wholesale and sold at retail. However, since WVL lacks the level of corporate aircraft
The City of Waterville Maine
Implementation and Financial Plan – Page 8-10
Airport Solutions Group, LLC & The Louis Berger Group, Inc. December 2011