Biz Buzz: Company adds fueling to mix of services at SLO airport

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Despite a troubled economy, one local aviation company is setting its sights higher. Pigs Can Fly Aviation, which offers flight training, aircraft rental, charter and maintenance, will soon add aircraft fueling to its mix, making it a full-service fixed-base operator at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport.

Fixed-base operators are businesses at an airport that provide fuel, charters and other services. The San Luis Jet Center is currently the only fixed-base operator offering fuel service at the airport.

�I think anybody who is willing to spend money in a down economy will be more prepared when the economy turns around,�� said Patrick Mallon, co-owner of Pigs Can Fly Aviation. �When you wait until it turns around, maybe the opportunity will be lost.�

The addition of fuel service will allow the company to sell fuel to individual airplane owners and transient aircraft � those not based out of the airport � as well as save on fuel costs as it will no longer have to buy fuel from another provider.

Pigs Can Fly uses about a third of all propeller plane fuel, also known as Avgas, at the airport, he said. Last year, the firm used roughly 130,000 gallons of fuel at an average price for Avgas of more than $4 a gallon.

The company, he added, has not projected how much revenue it would generate by selling fuel.

Pigs Can Fly is currently leasing two pads at the airport�s fuel farm facility. A 20,000-gallon tank for jet fuel and a 12,000 tank for Avgas are under construction. Pigs Can Fly also has a contract with Chevron to become a distributor, Mallon said.

The company, which declined to provide annual revenues, hopes to provide fuel service in late summer or early fall.

Founded in 1998, Pigs Can Fly has 23 employees.

� Julie Lynem

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