AVIAA, the global procurement and group purchasing organisation for business aviation, today announced the release of its Annual Aviation Fuel Study. AVIAA's operator and private owner members recently received a personalised AVIAA Member Fuel Benchmark Report and Metropolitan Fuel Pricing Study, giving comparisons of individual movements, fuel pricing and opportunity scores based on AVIAA's 'True Price' at the top 100 airport FBOs served. AVIAA members accounted for 19,000 movements at the top 10 major airports and contributed over 56,000 movements at the 100 most frequented airports. The study revealed a 139% price spread between high and low fuel prices within the top 25 metro areas including London, New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

“We continuously monitor, research and analyse general aviation supply chain activity and pricing for our members. This gives them valuable benchmark intelligence to help make smarter purchasing decisions and negotiate market-relevant agreements,” comments Richard Tilghman, AVIAA's COO and chief product officer, who leads the data analytics team.

While Member Fuel Benchmark Reports focus on personalised analysis, AVIAA has also made a summarised version of the 2019 Metro Fuel Pricing Study available to the wider general aviation community by request via aviaa.com. Here, AVIAA compares fuel pricing across multiple airports to quantify variances within major operator destinations. “Each of those markets has multiple airports, and many vary substantially in fuel pricing. While landing at alternative airports in a particular metro area isn't always an option for a charter or an owner, there's a lack of quantified opportunity costs for landing at alternative locations. This is intelligence operators can integrate as a component of their cost management strategies,” said Tilghman.

Custom reports were delivered to members in February, ahead of the crippling effects on aviation since brought about by COVID-19. This enabled operators to leverage the intelligence provided in the studies to remain agile and cost-efficient in their operations in today's market environment. “AVIAA aims to support our members in achieving procurement best practices that balance costs, quality and safety in executing their operations among our community of operators and supplier partners,” adds CEO Les Popiolek

The Metro Fuel Pricing Study found that there are potential savings opportunities in every metro area examined.

“While fuel is a variable cost for operators, it's also their most significant expenditure. Our research provides actionable insights for our members. It's difficult for anyone to predict how long flight activity will be negatively impacted, but our focus remains on providing our community with a platform to strengthen its market position through lower operating costs and improved margin performance,” Popiolek adds.

AVIAA provides aviation procurement solutions across other key spend categories including insurance, maintenance, training, data, operations and ground handling, and plans to issue reports on these additional segments soon. AVIAA is currently working with members on how they can realise immediate savings on fixed operating costs, helping those operators free up much-needed capital during this time.