The Columbus City Council on Tuesday voted to appropriate $50,000 to Columbus Municipal Airport to purchase more fuel for aircraft due to record sales and elevated fuel prices.
The money does not come from city tax dollars but rather from revenue that the airport generated, said airport director Brian Payne. However, airport officials are still required to ask for the city council’s approval because it is considered the airport’s fiscal body.
The council, for its part, opted to consider an ordinance that would approve using money to buy fuel on first and second reading at the same time before voting to approve the funds. Ordinances are required to be passed on two readings.
“We are in need of an additional $50,000 to purchase additional fuel for us to be able to sell,” airport director Brian Payne told the council during Tuesday’s meeting. “…The fuel we sell goes back into making the airport profitable.”
“We definitely are in need of it. I think we’re down to 3,000 gallons in the tank now,” Payne added later in the meeting.
Payne said the airport has sold a record amount of fuel during the first nine months of the year. As of the end of September, the airport had sold 42,195 gallons of fuel, up from 37,556 gallons sold during the same period last year.
Payne said he thinks the increasing demand for fuel and overall number of aircrafts flying in and out of Columbus is largely because the airport is growing in popularity and the remodeled Blackerby’s Hangar 5 restaurant has been “a big hit.”
“The airport is becoming more popular all the time,” Payne said.
