Linda Sollars was the first customer at APF to fuel her aircraft, a Sling HW, with UL94.
Naples Airport (APF) on Florida’s west coast is subsidizing the cost of UL94 unleaded avgas, which it started supplying to aircraft operators on June 9 as an alternative to leaded fuel.
The Naples Airport Authority (NAA) announced the subsidy to help equalize the cost of UL94 and 100LL leaded avgas, which the airport continues to offer through FBO Naples Aviation. The city-owned airport is also offering the owners of eligible aircraft based at APF a $250 one-time credit to complete the required supplemental type certification to use UL94.
The authority said APF is one of only three public-use airports in Florida and the 35th of 5,000 public airports in the U.S. to offer UL94, a Swift Fuels product. “This is the right thing to do for aviation and our community,” NAA Board Chair Kerry Dustin said. “I commend our staff on proactively implementing a plan to safely offer UL94 in less than four months from the time the board first raised the question.”
Naples resident Linda Sollars was the first customer at the airport to fuel her aircraft, a four-place Sling HW, with UL94.
As of June 12, the airport listed the price of UL94 full-service fuel at $9.89 per gallon and 100LL full-service retail at $6.13 per gallon. Public self-fueling 100LL was selling for $4.88 per gallon. Naples Aviation, which works with supplier Avfuel, also provides Jet-A for turbine powered aircraft.
Less than half of the light aircraft based at APF can safely use UL94, according to the authority, which reports 400 overall based aircraft. The airport managed 122,281 operations in the last fiscal year.
The NAA said it recently completed laboratory testing on the airport and at several nearby residences that detected no traces of lead or other aviation fuel contaminates. It is currently replacing golf carts, aircraft tugs, ground power units and pickup trucks with zero-emissions electric vehicles and equipment.
